chicago

First of all, I have to give thanks to a superb traveling buddy. We got into Chicago O'hare at 4:45 Thursday morning. That's 2:45 Seattle time. I can't exactly remember why a red eye flight was such a great idea. But John was super good about it. Even while little teeth were working his way through his gums.

After we got off the plane we took two trains a bus and a taxi to get to our hotel. The public transit is amazing in Illinois! And seeing the the great lakes was breathtaking from a train. It looked so much like the ocean.

Can I tell you a secret? Skip if you don't want to know. I used to want to travel the world. But becoming a mom has made me the world's number one scaredy pants. Have three little sweetlings to take care of has sort of squashed out my adventurous spontaneity. And I ALWAYS look both ways before crossing a few times. So this trip was terrifying to me. I almost canceled a few times. But it wasn't as scary as I had expected. Nobody jumped us on the train, or the bus, the taxi drivers were nice, if not very good drivers. And the only person we had a problem with on the whole trip was a parking attendant who definitely woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

EVERYONE was nice on our trip. It was such a blessing to me. I'll still always look both ways before I cross the street, but I'm not so scared to hop on a plane and see some place new, now. We even got to our hotel six hours before check in, and they let us into our room, with no extra charges!

One of the things I was most excited for (other than Becca) was the Chicago dogs.

My name is Beth, and I love hot dogs.

But something I didn't think about when getting a hotdog from a roadside stand. They are boiled. And nothing ruins a good hot dog like boiling it. All the toppings were a super fun rollercoaster for my taste buds, though. I'm going to make my own this summer, but with some Hebrew Nationals on the grill. Or maybe some XXL or costco dogs...

The pizza was good, too. I liked the thick, biscuit like crust. But I hear from some New Yorkers that it's nothing on their pizza. So, someday I'm going there. And I gotta try the bagels, too.




I am now in love with Natural History Museums! The Field Museum was fabulous! This is Sue, and that is not her real head. Her head is really heavy, so it's upstairs. Over by that pteradactyl and statue with the jerseys on. I can only guess that there are some fanatics working there.

And we went to Navy Pier. Do you see that ferris wheel? It's really tall. And I don't really like heights and it goes about .25 miles per hour. (That's just my guess.) But you get a great view of the skyline from the top for five minutes... With too many feet between you and the ground...

Isn't the skyline lovely? Those are my sweet parents. My other traveling buddies. They were pretty good, too. No John, though.