Chicago II: The Revenge – Day Three

I hate Nazis. Not just the German asswhipes from WWII, but those folks who take it upon themselves to enforce arbitrary things beyond their power.

Case in point, Hawthorn Suites offers a free breakfast bar. No where in any of the printed materials did I have a clear time of when the thing ended. So after getting the boys around and then getting down stairs it was 9:05 (which really isn’t too bad if you think about the fact that they were up until 11:00). So I sat the boys down and started putting together some breakfast plates for them.

As I was getting ready to pour some juice for them when this staff guy comes up.

Nazi: “No, no, no… no, no… no, no” (Think Apu from the Quiki*Mart)
Me: “What?”
N: “Buffet closes at 9:00” (taps a sign on the wall)
M: “Yeah, but its 9:05 and all this food is there”
N: “Buffet closes at 9:00” (taps a sign on the wall)
M: “You’re kidding me right?”
N: “Buffet closes at 9:00”

Asswhipe Nazi freakin’ bastard scum.

So we with much disgust for Hawthorn Suites we headed back upstairs loaded up the Bellman’s Cart that I kept in the room the night before, loaded the Pilot and headed to Chicago proper.

Now because of expert planning, we had determined that the first place we needed to go was the Museum of Science and Industry. It was the farthest from the hotel, and we had time to kill before we could check in. So a quick 40 minutes later we found ourselves in the lower level of the Museum in waiting in line to purchase a City Pass.

A City Pass is a book of coupons for admission into various museums and attractions that you buy in advanced and avoid longer lines later (which REALLY came in handy later). Plus you save money, and I like to do that.

Our first stop was to find something to eat (thank you buffet nazi). We located the café, snagged some food stuff and got the boys from cranky to content.

And then we started to wander.

I have to say in advance that of all the museums we visited, this one was the best laid out for kids and I believe that the boys enjoyed the most. The first thing we were greeted with upon exiting the elevator was a giant sign that said, “POO TO POWER.”

I knew that I was in the right place.

I snapped a few “interesting” photos (as you can or at least will see) and Dafyd and Jace dove right in.

The thing that I found most fascinating was their overwhelming compulsion to push every button and twist every nob. I couldn’t get them to read a sign, but man did they turn those cranks.

Most of what we saw is a blur (sorry Autumn, I don’t have quite the strong recollection as I did with Indiana Beach) because of the fact that there was so much to see. The real highlight of the visit had to be the tour through the U-505 German sub (see how I planted the idea of the Germans at the very beginning of this blog only to turn around and bring them back into the conversation later – I’m an awesome story teller and I totally planned all that – no for real… honest).

While we waited in line we had a chance to speak with an awesome security guard who was a WWII buff and answered every question the boys could through at them about the sub, how it was captured, how many torpedoes it could carry, were there any “booby-traps”, you name it. The sub itself was much different than I recalled it. Most of that had to do with the fact that they’ve since moved the sub and built a building around it since I saw it as a child. It was well worth the extra $5 (each) it cost for the tour.

We visited a lot of other things and a good time was had by all (and we got some great shots of the boys – which is all I really cared about).

From there we packed back up in the Pilot and headed off to the Essex Inn.

As has become a common pattern with my travel recently (like what happened to me in Madison yesterday), the room wasn’t ready.

We left the bags with the Bellman and headed off to the restaurant that was attached to the hotel to grab some more grub. The waiter was awesome and we had a nice relaxing time of just hanging out with the boys.

By the time we were finished, the room was ready and we headed up stairs.

Dafyd wasn’t as thrilled with this room as we were with the other (and I have to agree with him). He wasn’t thrilled that they were sleeping in a pull out bed, and Michelle wasn’t thrilled with the one bathroom, and I wasn’t thrilled that the bathroom, sink area was smaller than an outhouse.

But such is life.

I know that I’ve toted a lot about my excellent planning, but it turns out that there were a few things I didn’t plan for. The first and the most major one was that Lollapalooza was taking place in Grant Park right outside the front door of hotel. Toss in filming for Batman and a convention that was just ending, and the fact that it was in the mid 90’s and Chicago was a very warm busy place.

We unpacked, made a few phone calls, and then strapped on our sandals and caught a cab.

One of the big selling points of Chicago for the boys was the fact that they got to go to the LEGO store. (I think it’s the only reason they wanted to go honestly, the rest was just fluff), and I had to make sure that we got that taken care of right away. So we caught our first Chicago cab and headed uptown to see how much damage we could do on Dad’s credit card. (I did make the mistake of cramming us all into the back seat, but I quickly fixed that for future trips).

To say that the boys loved it, would be an understatement. It was just freaking cool. LEGO building blocks rock the house! We took a ton of pictures.

Instead of catching a cab right home we decided to walk the mile-ish back to give the boys a feel for the city and what city life is all about. We saw some exciting street performers, and had a great discussion about people begging and when and how to help people on the street (some we gave some money too – street performer guy, and some we didn’t – the guys just begging). It was a very good learning opportunity.

With a little complaining and a lot of sweating and a few sore feet, we made it back safely and went to bed tired and loving Chicago.

* Pictures to follow when I’m not in the middle of an exciting session.