Va-cay part 2: Shedd Aquarium

Day two of our vacation took us to downtown Chicago and Shedd Aquarium. Everyone was up bright and early (thank you eastern standard time!), so we were able to leave the hotel by 9am. We got downtown okay, missed our turn, had to turn around and got a flat tire! Thank goodness for Andy and the doughnut we had to put on the car. We circled back around, missed our turn again and then, finally, made it to the parking garage. How fun to find out that the exit to garage took us right by the Bears Pro Shop! Andy was in heaven! (did I mention that we were right by Soldier Field)

Outside Shedd, trying to get a picture of the boys. It didn't work out so well.

We looked at fish! I think the boys liked it. They seemed interested in all the different aquariums. We got to see a couple different displays-Amazon waters, beluga whales, dolphins-very cool.

We ate lunch at a restaurant in the museum. We knew it was a "nice" restaurant when the server brought Andy's ice tea in a carafe and we had cloth napkins to use :-) (the boys said, "What are these?" "Napkins boys"). We ordered and they brought the food to us. We sat by the window and looked out on Lake Michigan.


Biggest hit of the day, the Polar Play area in what seemed to be the basement of the Aquarium. There was a submarine there the kids could play in. The boys loved it and played and caught up other kids there in their game.



I bet we stayed at Shedd for 4 hours. Then, the boys started getting tired and whiney and were ready to go. They thought it was cool that there were so many seagulls around.

They walked through a sculpture.

Andy got a couple photos of part of Soldier Field. Go Bears!

We took the "scenic" way back to the hotel so that we wouldn't have to drive too fast on the doughnut tire. We got to see some "interesting" suburbs. Andy dropped us off at the hotel and then went to get the tire fixed (thank you Walmart for being open on a Sunday afternoon!). We Andy got back, we went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant recommended by the hotel. Hoy's Restaurant was delicious! They gave us a ton of food and were patient with the boys. If we lived up there, I would go back to that restaurant often. After dinner, it was back to hotel, a bath for Liam and swimming for the other boys. Then, a movie in bed for the boys. They didn't hear the thunderstorm carrying on outside.

End day 2.