The Return to Navy Pier

Today S1 (sister-in-law #1) and the 2 kids she's been nannying for the summer, and me and the kids went to Navy Pier. We took the metra to the city and started walking. Walking. Walking. Walking more. Oh yeah, more walking. We saw Union Station, the Sears Tower, the Board of Trade, the Art Institute, Millenium Park, and oh so much more. (I'm not kidding, I think we walked for about an hour and half!) We hadn't planned on walking almost the entire way to Navy Pier. Seriously, that's just ludicrous. By the time we realized that only certain trolleys at certain (very few) stops went there, we were fairly well screwed. S1 and I had a fun time wandering around the streets of Chicago, but it was hot and humid and the kids weren't finding the walk as fun, once we were in the millionth minute. I was really impressed with how they all handled it, though. There really wasn't much complaining ... just slow walking and expressions of exasperation (sp? spell check seems to htink it's fine, but it looks funny to me!?). We finally found a trolley stop that went to the correct destination, but just missed the trolley. 20 minutes later, 2 hours and tweny minutes after we got off the metra, we were on our way! Navy Pier was fun. I wanted to see the tall ships, and the kids wanted to go to the funhouse, so we treated the kids to McDonalds, and started walking down the Pier. The fun house was alright, but so not worth $30. The ships were great, and so were the ducks! We named them (the ducks) Anita, Hugo and Lewis (babies); Estelle, and oh, darn .. I can't remember the names of the older ducks! Well, trust me when I say (again) fun!! We took the trolley to the train station, I held my son, S1 held my daughter, one of the other kids held the stroller and we dismebarked in an all out dead run to catch our train. Fortunately, we made it. We got home. Life is good. The day was great.