Blaine Voyage

Quite a while ago now it was the morning of our second full day in Chicago. We got moving very fast reasonably quickly so that we were ready to see our family friends Candy, Parker, and Kennedy. We met them at our AirBnB and walked the few blocks to Wrigley Field (go Cubbies!) and took an excessive inordinate normal amount of pictures in front of the stadium. Then we walked to the L (eLevated train) station and rode the train to a stop near the Field Museum. 

On the way there we saw a Trader Joe’s. We just had to go in. I mean, who can resist all the tantalizing and tasty treats that lie inside of that building labeled Joe’s? So we went in and bought some snacks to last us until our late lunch that afternoon. We kept walking and…
Well, then we saw the legs.

Correction: legs and torsos with no arms or heads that were about 10 feet tall (pun not intended).

It was a very cool sculpture called Agora that was kinda freaky at first. Overall I ended up liking it but when I first saw it, it caught me by surprise. We wandered around for a bit, then got back on track.

Anyhoo,

Thoughts on the Field Museum:

It. Was. Awesome.

The Ancient Americas exhibit was really interesting and I learned in more detail about the hunters and gatherers that were our predecessors. There were lots of artifacts to look at including, but not limited to, jewelry, pots and ceramics, weaponry, and, tools. The hunter/gatherer game was a big hit for Parker and me (Candy and my mom had to almost literally drag us out of there). We also went to the gemstone exhibit (not the Hall of Jades) and saw a lot of pretty and cool stones. My favorite was the yellow sapphires and Julie liked the pink sapphires. We got to see the sapphires (my and my sister’s birthstone), amber, a jade hilted dagger, and so much more. When Julie saw the diamonds she said,

“So. Many. Sparkles!!!!”

We left the museum and for lunch we went in search of the hot dog place that we saw advertised outside the museum. The sign’s only directions were to look for a yellow flag. Long story short: we didn’t see a yellow flag. So, with help from the never-flustered-or-undeterred-GPS/Google Maps-lady, we reached our destination of a different hot dog place with no flag, but yummy milkshakes and classic Chicago hot dogs. I had a plain one with ketchup.

After lunch we headed out to the Bean (the official name is Cloud Gate).

If you confused right now, look it up (or of course, since this is the 21st century, click on my easy link to the Wikipedia page right here).

After we all had our fill of fun and amusement of looking at ourselves in the Bean we left for the Maggie Daley playground in Grant Park (the Bean is in Millenium Park). The Maggie Daley playground was really, really, really, (add a thousand more “really”s) fun!

If you want an in depth description of the playground, keep reading. If you don’t, just skip the next few paragraphs.

So, Maggie Daley playground has a couple of different parts. There’s a couple of fountains to play in, and an area just for younger kids that we didn’t really explore. There is also the Enchanted Forest, which was cool. It’s made of a bunch of bushes and hedges, mostly with fountains, logs to jump across, talking tubes, and a mirror maze. I enjoyed the logs and mirror maze the most.

Next there is a pirate ship playground that is pretty cool but very small compared to the other parts. I liked the underneath part of that.

There was also a lighthouse tower that Julie loved with a slide and whirlpool maker at the top. Beyond that, there were 2 other towers with lots of ladders, slides, and other interesting parts to explore. A rope bridge connected them. 

Underneath the towers and off to the side a bit was a small hill with a bunch of slides going down it. They were all different sizes and you went different speeds. Some had a lot of bumps and some didn’t. My favorite was the bumpiest slide.

We had a great day in Chicago with Parker, Candy, and Kennedy. Though we didn’t go to the Willis or Hancock towers it was just as fun. Spending the end at the playground was awesome so everyone liked it and we had a marvelous day.