The summer trips have started! . . .

I started one kid too late (sorry Lara...but you did have an awesome trip in France this year (-:) to take my newly minted 13 year olds on a quicky trip to Chicago the weekend after school ends.  This year Ben and I got to induct my new plan, and what fun we had!

We hopped on this guy Saturday morning around 10:30a.m. (not for the $1 ticket though, but still, our prices beat gas and parking and the train, although we left an hour late at departure and and 1.5 hours late to come home because of "mechanical difficulties) and returned home 1:30 a.m. Sunday "night" though it was supposed to be 11:50p.m. arrival.  The buses were double deckers with outlets and very slow wifi, but it was clean, had nice people and only one 20-30 minute stop in the whole trip.  I think I'd try it again if I don't score a low train ticket price.

This is both of our first "selfies" ever. 

We're not selfie people!

(-:

 Petting sting rays was definitely a highlight of our 3.5 hours in Shedd.   We probably could've stayed longer had we really read everything and pondered more, but this duo had aching feet and wasn't into reading signs. We totally LOVED our time here though.

What a GREAT pic of Ben and Harrison!

(-:

Our second highlight (we did two main sightsees) was getting out onto one of these window ledges on the 103rd floor of the Willis/Sears tower.  

We were SUPER excited to learn that we were in the line to get on the ledge that CRACKED just a few weeks ago!!!!! Oh my goodness!

Besides the snafus with late busses, literally everything worked like clockwork on our trip.  The best tip ever was from our hotel check-in gal who told us to go to the Shedd Aquarium 30 minutes before the 9a.m. opening to avoid lines, that was absolute genius!! We had no lines and no crowds our entire time there, awesome! Plus, our time at the Willis Tower was also very manageable lines/waits wise. I think it really helped to be sightseeing so early in June and on a Sunday.  Sometimes you can get a 1-2 hour line just to buy tickets at the Tower, not us though, right on in.  Great deep dish pizza with an amazing buttery crust at Lou Malnati's and we had a nail biter of a Stanley Cup hockey game to watch Saturday night all comfy and tucked into our quiet hotel room. What a great trip!