Chicago

We survived Chicago! We weren’t shot or mugged and we didn’t lose any kids, so it was definitely a success. Everyone was right. Chicago is Expensive. Even the gas was $.60 more than the surrounding areas.

We stayed in an Airbnb apartment near Chinatown. It was in a good location, it felt pretty safe, had free parking, and was as close to town as we could afford.

I never really had a desire to come here, I’m not really a city person and it just didn’t sound very interesting. We decided to come after talking with my sister and brother in law who raved about it and Joaquin expressed an interest, so we decided to go ahead and check it out.

I’m so glad we did. This place is really gorgeous, the lake is actually blue, there are loads of fantastic parks throughout the city, it has world class museums, and the architecture is pretty amazing. The pizza was great too!

Once again, we didn’t do nearly as much as I would have liked. But we did as much as we could in the time that we had with the little people in tow.

We spent a lot of money, but some things were worth it. We bought tickets for an on and off tour bus, definitely worth it. Giordano’s  Chicago style pizza at Navy Pier, worth it.  The Field museum wasn’t really worth it because we didn’t spend much time there and our kids were just as happy with going to a playground. Eating at an authentic Chinese restaurant in Chinatown wasn’t too expensive and totally worth it.  The best parts were free: walking around Chinatown, enjoying the fabulous parks (our favorite was Maggie Daly park), checking out the “beach,” and of course, visiting with friends that are traveling too.