Trip Day 10: Chicago

Saturday morning came with bright, sunny skies, to our relief. We got lucky twice with big rainstorms going into D.C. and Chicago, followed by clear skies the next day.
We stayed at the Hampton Inn, right in downtown, which was really fun for the kids. We could see the Trump Towers from our hotel room on the 11th floor.
The Hampton Inn was just the right balance between luxury and frugality, for me at least. It was a nice hotel, with a nice pool and nicely decorated rooms, but still low-brow enough to offer free breakfast (hot! and delicious!) and free internet.

We had two things on the agenda that day, to go to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, and go up the Sears Tower.

We went to the Museum first, and the boys were totally thrilled to find out that the Harry Potter Exhibition happened to be there during that time.

(Super-blurry picture, but the only one I've got from the exhibit since photography was not allowed inside.)

The exhibit was not cheap (really, really not cheap), but was probably one of the top things the boys did the entire trip. It was basically like a Harry Potter museum, with lots of costumes (Quidditch uniforms, gowns from the Yuletide Ball--Emma Watson is teeny tiny!, Ron's dress robes, lots and lots of costumes) and props from the movies, a life-size Hagrid's Hut to walk through, replicas of the set from the graveyard in book 4, and the Great Hall at the Yuletide Ball, Dementor models, and a life size model of Buckbeak, and a lot of other stuff. We had been listening to a lot of Harry Potter on this trip, and all of us are big fans anyway, so it really was great. At the end there was a gift shop with a lot of Harry Potter merchandise including some really neat and expensive wands, a replica of the Time Turner necklace Hermione wore in book 3, costumes, clothing, key chains, magnets, jewelry, candy, and pretty much anything else you could want. Joseph and Mosey each bought a Harry Potter wand, Brigham bought a key chain with the Hogwarts coat of arms (he's really into coats of arms and likes to draw his own), and Ben bought a box of Fudge Flies for all of us, and a mug for himself.

After, we went through a lot of the rest of the museum, which was also excellent (I especially liked the U505 Submarine exhibit).

Then it was time for the Sears Tower! It was great fun, and not too scary. There was no line to go up and we even found a parking place within a block of the building! Brigham loved it and I gave him my camera to take dozens of pictures of the view.

(I discovered that unless you have a fill flash, which I did not, you cannot take a picture properly exposed for the view and for the person in front of the view. Note to self: bring a flash next time)


The view from the ground, which doesn't even begin to suggest how high this building actually is.

The last thing we did that day was to walk up the Miracle Mile, try to go up the Hancock Building (too late), and admire the gorgeous tulips that were planted EVERYWHERE up and down Michigan Avenue.

This trip was almost like watching the seasons run backward. We left Texas in summer time, backtracked to late spring in Tennessee and Virginia, and went further back to early spring in Cleveland and Chicago. The leaves had just come out on the trees, the tulips were in full bloom, and it was COLD. I believe it was in the 50's the whole time we were in Chicago. Brrrrr!!

We ended the evening with 2 pizzas from Pizzaria Uno, the famous Chicago Pizza joint. It was very good and I never, ever want to look up the nutritional information on what I ate.