Our First Stop-Chicago

June 29, 2012

 Our first full day in Chicago was spent at the Museum of Science and Industry. They currently have a Mythbusters exhibit that we wanted to see. It's an amazing museum housing several full sized trains, plains, a submarine, and numerous exhibits.

Here are Doug, Peyton, and Eli on a street car showing some Jazz hands.

This is one of the Mythbusters exhibits. You can try to pull the tablecloth from the table without moving the dishes. There's some sciencey stuff they teach you while you try it. I wasn't really listening becasue I generally remove the dishes from the table before I take the tablecloth off anyway.

Here is the "Do you get wetter running or walking through rain?" experiment.

I am not going to comment on what this "experiment" was. Suffice it to say, it suited Doug.

June 30

The Chicago Institute of Art

This photo was taken inside the Bean which is a huge metalic sculpture in Millennium
Park which is right next to the Chicago Institute of Art. Peyton loves large sculptures so this was right up his alley.

Now for the actual art within the museum.

My favorites are always the Monets. Interesting to see American Gothic in person and Georgia O'Keefe's work.

Ever appreciative of great art, Doug made sure to show Eli around and point out interesting aspects of the artists' work.

Unless it was a nude, and then Doug went from art aficionado to overprotective dad.

And husband. Guess there's no "Magic Mike" in my future.

And after a very busy day in downtown Chicago, we had a cookout with my Chicago relatives. Aunt Cathy, Karen and Ruthie, and my cousins Jackie, Carrie and Brian. I don't know when I have laughed so hard. It was so good to see them for a happy visit rather than for a sad occasion. I haven't been to Chicago in several years, but I felt so at home. It was awesome to hear that my aunts and cousins were just as picky eaters as I am! For once I wasn't the odd one. Many of the things that make me "different" back in Tennessee, make me normal in Chicago. Good to know.

July 1, 2012

 View from the Adler Planetarium

Awesome trio in front of Lake Michigan.

 And in front of the Chicago Skyline.

This was Doug's favorite attraction: the Adler Planetarium.



This is the Gemini 12 space module. I listened to Doug give a lengthy description of what its significance is, but I lost interest after "Gemini 12 was....... "

And here Doug is posing as quite the Rennaissance Man.

Peyton listening to the Renaissance Man.

After the Planetarium we went to the Willis "formerly known as Sears but everyone still calls it Sears" Tower. Really amazing views from 103 stories up.

Eli- Deep in thought.

The Tower now has a crazy glass ledge on the Skydeck. Anyone crazy enough can walk out on a glass ledge that is over NOTHING.....except 103 stories of air between you and the pavement. Ok, we all went out on the ledge and had our photo made by the ridiculously expensive photographer on hand but since it's not a digital photo I can't really show you yet. But here is Eli, the only one of us who wasn't terrified the whole time. He went out repeatly. Poor Peyton nearly had a heart attack.

These brave feet belong to Eli. He didn't seem to be bothered by it at all.

Here he is again.

Here he is trying to coax Peyton onto the ledge for a picture.

And here is Peyton, barely on the ledge, still holding on to the wall, as if that would hold him up if the floor gave way. This was the only picture I could get of him.

And Finally, Buckingham Fountain

We wanted to get a photo, okay, I wanted a photo, of all of us in front of Buckingham Fountain. So we asked a lady walking by if she would mind to take our photo in front of the fountain. Here is the photo:

Some of you might have noticed that we are NOT in this photo. Wow. Not to be discouraged, we moved a bit around the fountain and asked a gentleman near us to take our photo in FRONT of the fountain. Here's THAT photo:

Who can tell me what's missing from this photo? That's right....the fountain.....the very famous100 year old fountain.

Surely the third time's a charm right? We moved around the fountain more and asked yet another person to kindly take our photo. Here it is:

 

We are all in the photo, and the fountain is there too, but it's a bit off center which messes with someone like be with OCD so, yes, we kept moving.

And this was our final attempt. Yes, we are all in the photo, and part of the fountain is in the photo, but, well, it's still not centered correctly. This was our last attempt though; we had to get back on the road and things were not getting any better.

As it turns out, the ridiculously expensive photos from the Willis "formerly known as Sears" Tower included photos of the family superimposed in front of several Chicago landmarks-one being Buckingham Fountain. And so I can leave Chicago with no regrets, because through the magic of computer generated imaging, I finally have a photo of our family centered in front of Buckingham Fountain.

And so I will leave you with this photo of Doug waving goodbye. Until next time friends......