Babymoon: "10-10-Who Gives a Crap?"

Andrew and I journeyed to Chicago this weekend for our little Babymoon getaway.  It also happened to be 10-10-10 (no one would let us forget it!) and the Chicago Marathon that weekend.    

We stayed at Hotel Indigo which was really nice.  Yes, those are wet blueberries.  Very different.

We were on the top floor, which was the "14th floor", because they didn't have a 13th floor because most hotels don't.   Who builds a hotel with 13th floors anyway? That just seems like bad luck.  But if you just ignore the 13th floor, apparently it goes away?

Saturday afternoon we walked all the way down Michigan Avenue.  We stopped at the Playstation-something store to test out their new video game device.  Oh here it is.  The Playstation Move.  They were letting people try out all the games so we had to try it.  It's Playstation's version of the Wii.  I was not that impressed.  But we had fun trying to figure it out.  Look at the concentration on our faces!

We were headed toward the Sears, ahem... the Willis Tower. 
This is the route we should have taken...

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This is the route we actually took.  THAT'S a lot of walking. 

View Larger Map

That's almost 3 miles.  But we went slow and stopped at pretty much every store and tourist spot.  See?

Haha! Look at those dorky tourists!

We heard music and decided to go check it out. 

But then we saw this sign.  RETREAT!!
Not quite the right music for us. :)

We had to get a picture of the lions in front of the Art Institute of Chicago.  The one Bears game we went to together had these lions wearing Bears football helmets on the tickets.  Ah, memories. :)

As we're walking I'm thinking....We're getting so close to the Sears... sorry, the Willis Tower! Maybe we'll get to see the sun setting from the top! How cool!

Little did we know they send you through security, several elevators, and several gated lines before you can get to the top.

They at least had a movie and fun models to look at while standing in line in a crazy hot room.

Yeah South Bend! Represent! Actually, we're pretty sure if this map is somewhat accurate, you should be able to see our house from Willis Tower since we probably fall into the circle.  Just barely.  I don't know if I believe that.

About an hour later....

We're here! It's completely DARK by now but seeing the city at night is still really cool.

Here we are!!!! We're on the ledge of the skydeck!!  I can't believe this is one of things I wanted to do! I'm deathly afraid of heights.  No, scratch that, I'm afraid of falling to my death from 1300 feet.  But I did some research to make sure this was safe (as if it wouldn't be???) and I tried it out.  But you can still see me holding on.  I'm a total CHICKEN!! Haha!

We got a professional picture taken but I haven't had time to scan it yet.  I'll put that up later.

We grabbed a cab back to Rush/Division and decided to get fancy and eat at Gibson's Steakhouse. 
Guess who ordered what?

Yeah, Preggs McGee ordered the prime rib that was the size of my plate.  Andrew ordered a more sensible filet.  The waiter brought it over to the table and said, "I hope you brought your A-game."  I did not.  Even with the both of us working on it, we couldn't even come close.  Whoops.  But Erin and Doug got some sweet after-tailgate prime rib and mashed potatoes!!! Delish!

The next day we went to the Shedd Aquarium.  What did we see??

ROCK LOBSTER!!!


Sorry, I had to.  That song blew my mind the first time I heard it.

ANYway, back to the aquarium.  There are some funky things living in water, I tell ya! My pictures are a bit blurry since I was taking pictures through glass but the colors are so cool I posted anyway.

These things were freaky! Those are tiny little snakes that bury half their bodies in the water!! CREEPY!

I loved the penguins! I could watch them all day. 

When we left the aquarium, I made Andrew travel with me to Dorktown and take dorko pictures.  :)

He's a good man for playing along.  He looks thrilled.

After the aquarium we went to the Museum of Science and Industry.  It's hard for me to post pictures of everything we were able to see there since you just have to experience it.  But I'll post some.

 When you walk into the Farm Tech section, the first thing you see is a sign for Fair Oaks Dairy! Fair Oaks is just north of my hometown.  They must give a lot of money! (Sidenote, if you're ever traveling south on I-65, you need to stop by Fair Oaks Dairy to get a milkshake. I'm just saying. Do it. You'll thank me later.)

One of their newer exhibits is the U-505 Submarine.  It is gigantic.  We watched the videos and they actually had to build the museum around it! HUGE!

 Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

 We visited the Baby Chick Hatchery.  An egg about to hatch...

 This one had a little trouble flipping back over. 

 Cute chick!

They had a 747 airplane hanging from the ceiling that you could tour.  This was exciting for Andrew because he sells the drills (tidbits and such, that's for you, Neals!) that cut the gears that go in 747 airplanes. He looks excited, doesn't he?

Now for some of the creepier things we saw.
Have you heard about the fetus room? It's a little creepy.

They have fetuses in all stages of growth.  This baby is around Baby T's size right now.  It's freaky because they are all real.  (You can read more at the link.)
They also had a baby at 37 weeks growth (he was HUGE!).  I have no idea how that's going to fit inside my belly! I guess I have some more growing to do. :(

Here's some more creepy stuff! The human body in pieces!! Ewww!!! Looks like something from a Tool video! Kinda awesome at the same time.

We did a lot more walking back up north on Michigan Avenue again which I love because I could take more pictures of the architecture.

The Wrigley Building is one of my favorites.

We had dinner that night at Carmine's which was AWESOME.  We met Erin, Doug, Holly and Jeff there.  I was so mad I didn't get a group picture of all of us at the table.  But I did get a picture with Holly at the last minute. 

The Babymoon was a complete success.  We hadn't spent quality time in the City of Big Shoulders (did you know it was called that?) since we were in grade school on field trips.  It was nice to explore at our own pace and stop where ever we wanted.  We are really lucky to be so close to such a great city.  Oh Sweet Home Chicago.