The Events of Thursday, August 26, 2010

          We slept in on our first morning in Chicago, Illinois. It was to be a lazy day, so why not start off right with eggs and oatmeal and our Grandma’s delicious sweet rolls, which she sent all the way from Oregon for Caitlin’s birthday. We were more awake after this delicious breakfast and showers. By the time we were all fed, showered, dressed, and readied for the day, it was noon. We set out in hope of leaving our RV, to get its brakes “re”-fixed, at a Midas shop, catching the “L”, going to Willis Tower, eating some Chicago-styled deep dish pizza, go to a Latin jazz concert, and catch the ”L” back home and voila, a perfect day! Well, obviously that wasn’t how it was going to be!

          Daddy had forgotten to tell the Midas place that we were a 30-foot long motorhome, so they didn’t have a lift for us. But they decided that they would try to take a look, but and then found … they couldn’t fit Harvey through the door to the garage!  So, we decided to go back to the Knickelbein’s house and eat lunch.

          We used their panini maker and had a delicious lunch. Then, with full tummies we walked a mile to the “L” and hopped on. As we rode along, we played string games and practiced sign language to one another. When we got down town we left the green line and got on the pink line. Caitlin was just confused about the whole process, so she just followed everyone else. Then we hopped off and walked to the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower), the tallest building in the world. After getting screened, we purchased tickets and took an elevator up to the top. 103 stories up‼ When we stepped out we were blinded with the light of the late afternoon sun shining through all the windows. Once we got adjusted, we went around and looked at the exhibits and the amazing views. It was very fun and kind of scary! Then, we went out onto the Sky Deck, glass structures that were clear glass on all sides, including the bottom. It was like you were standing on air, 103 stories above Chicago. We took a ton of pictures and took pictures for other people, too. We even jumped up and down in the box while Mom took our picture. All that jumping freaked out the people watching us. I guess they thought we were going to knock the box loose or something. We took an elevator back down to the bottom. When we had exited the building and looked up we could see the glass boxes we were in and then it was really scary.

          Next, we walked to Millennium Park. There they have these great giant fountains that pour over these walls that have different faces and colors on them. Sometimes it even looks like the water is coming out of a person’s mouth. We remembered playing in those waters the last time we were in Chicago. Next we head over to the “Bean”. It is a gigantic kidney bean shaped sculpture that is reflective, like a huge distorting carnival mirror. There we met our cousin Daniel and listened to a Latin Jazz concert. We were able to hear some incredible and unusual jazz music complete with fiddles, bongos and flutes. We also got to see some jazz dancers, which was very cool. Then, we all went back on the “L” together and rode back to Oak Park. Uncle Mark was there in a car to pick us up. So, all the ladies drove home with him and the gents walked home. Once returned, we had some delicious vegetarian lasagna and hung out with family after a long, but still perfect day.