Chicago

Our vacation west began with a quick day trip to Chicago. We left Columbus at 5am, arrived in Chicago around 11am, and dropped Todd off to work at the Chicago office for the day while the kids and I went to Navy Pier to have fun!
Navy Pier is like a Jersey Boardwalk. Touristy and overpriced, but I had to ride on the Ferris Wheel. My poor kids had to hear me explain the significance of riding a Ferris Wheel in Chicago about five times that day. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to read Devil in the White City NOW!) The kids, however, took one look at how HUGE the Ferris Wheel was and flat out refused to go on it. So we started with something tamer. The carousel is always fun...
...Even when you are being very sly on your slightly evil looking rabbit...

We then moved on to mini golf. This was laughable. The people behind us laughed a lot.

I think it's because they don't have kids.

The people in front of us ducked a lot.

Benjamin assumed that since he had played mini golf on Webkinz, he knew how to do it. After hitting the ball over the heads of the people at the next hole THREE times, he realized that doing things in real life is a little different. Nathaniel was the most conventional putter. Caleb on the other hand, liked to use his putter like a pool cue and refused to speak to anyone who tried to convince him to do it any other way. After about 10 holes, the boys had decided they'd had enough. I was more than happy to indulge them in quitting at that point.

We went inside to get some authentic Chicago cuisine (McDonald's) and were able to enjoy a kids show. Caleb even went up and participated. He was thrilled because he got to "walk the plank" and get "eaten" by a small rubber shark.
After lunch and a show, I had sell the kids on the Ferris Wheel. So, I told them the history of the first Ferris wheel...again. Then I explained the laws of physics as best I could remember them. I cited safety statistics and the very small odds that anything could go wrong. I still had to drag Nathaniel on literally kicking and screaming, but the other two were convinced. And then we started going up. Okay, the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier is really friggin' high!!! Even I was a little quivery at the top. But the view is amazing and I could explain to my kids that it's possible to be nervous and still appreciate something at the same time.

Here's Benjamin, letting go of his death grip on the bars (with one hand) for a moment.

We figured when we started looking like this, it was time to go pick up Todd and head to the hotel. May I just say that I completely rock at driving in Chicago? I harnessed my inner NYC cab driver and sped through every yellow light and cut people off with impunity. It's lovely living in Ohio where people drive politely, but every now and then it's nice to get back to my roots.

And then we succumbed to exhaustion.


And Todd and Caleb wrote down their plans to take over the world! (Actually, Todd was still working. But it wouldn't surprise me one bit if that's what Caleb was doing...while wearing his Power Ranger underwear.)