A Room With A View

So here I am, using the window ledge as my computer desk . . . snoring from behind me. Catching up on blog posts. . . I did one for each day so far, so if you've been checking in and have seen nothing, scroll down below this post, there's more (rambling) posts. So I'm using this ledge and there's so many lights still on, even at 12:30 am. Kinda cool, but I'm glad all I have at home is the one street light across the street from out house that's on all night. If any of these migraines actually happened (had to take a 3rd Relpax at 2:30 this morning. . . sigh . . .only have 2 left to last me the rest of the trip . . .hoping I don't need 'em), the lights would be torture.

Today, we did the Art Institute of Chicago. Started off in the Kid Area. Went to see all the Rooms done in miniature. As a child, I used to dream of having a miniature house, and remember looking at my dad's National Geography that had the tiny scaled models of Buckingham Palace and being in awe. . .so I loved this exhibit. Thought the kids would too. Iand and Alaina did. . allie was bored after about the 5-6 one and started looking for the dome "from Beauty and the Beast" and horses in each room. ROFL

Saw Caldecott art, went through the kids' section.

Knew we weren't going to get to see all of the art museum. Andy wanted to see the armor room. We thought Ian would like that. . . wrong. All the kids bored. I said on a bench and gave the kids a talk about how we didn't come to Chicago to make this a "kids' wonderland" for them, that we wanted to see a few things too, and this was one thing dad wanted to see. They got better. . . Ian and Allie went with Andy and listened to the docent talk about armor. Alaina walked and looked at glassware with me. . by the end of it, she could name what was in a display case "beaker, drinking glass, drinking glass, beaker, beaker, drinking glass. . . ."all I can say, is they must've been thirsty, those drinking glasses were HUGE!

Then we went to the impressionist area. I love Monet (ROFL . . .I originally typed Money . . .I enjoy that too . . .however, it wasn't on display in the impressionist are), and Renoir, and Degas (the dancers. . .love 'em). I wanted to see the Monet exhibit because it's one of the largest perminient displays outside of France. I'd seen a travelling Monet/Manet exhibit about 7-8 years ago in Dallas (or maybe Ft. Worth actually), but hadn't seen anything since. Talking impressionist art with the kids and they were interested until Allie got hungry. But Ian did notice that Monet painted the same haystack, or bridge, or lilies, multiple times. Here's my Favorite Monet, and Jamie. . . isn't this the painting that you have the print of in your house?



















Did lunch (Bennigans), then caught the Subway (another first for the kids and I), and went to the Hershey store (they have this "machine" where the kids can make up a bucket of chocolates. . . basically a money making deal, and photo op),














Borders, the Lego store, the Sanrio store. .. and someplace called Ethel's Chocolate Lounge. . . YUMMY! Chocolate fondue. This lego guy was on a bench outside the lego store. . . we had to wander around for quite awhile before we got to take a series of pics with the kids and him. Some older woman needed the bench more than we needed pictures. And I guess you could say Allie enjoyed the fondue. ::vfg:: . . .all the kids did.



Exhausted today. Not sure I'll be online again until who knows when . . possibly the 11th, but check back.. . .

Things learned in Chicago, day 2:
-- Stand your ground, trips are for you too
-- If you can hook the kids in somehow, they'll like "adult" art too (no, not ones sans clothing, just the stuff andy and I wanted to see!)
-- Wear them out enough and you can talk them out of swimming
-- Walking with a not quite 4 year old in Chicago without a stroller = not such a great idea.

Future plans: planetarium, natural history museum, aquarium, museum of science, children's museum, Navy Pier, boat cruise (doing this during the fireworks wednesday night) . .. .then we're off to Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville, Memphis and Conway, Ark.