Two days before Kade's 19th birthday, we traveled to Chicago- all 6 of us! Jason and I both had a free night's stay at a Marriott, so we booked both rooms together at a hotel in downtown Chicago so we could go to the Shedd Aquarium on the 29th.
We planned it so we could be back home by the 30th for Kade's birthday. Some of us were supposed to go skiing/snowboarding that day with a few of Kade's friends, but that didn't end up working out.
Here's the recap of our less than 24 hours in Chicago, though.
It's only a 4-hour drive, so we easily made it after church and lunch on Sunday. We started a 9-hour audiobook that most of us agreed upon and enjoyed, which would allow us to finish it on the return home. We had bought these delicious beef tips microwaveable dinners from Aldi, along with rice packets, a salad, and precooked pasta for Erik. You may be thinking, "Delicious microwaveable dinner? No way!" but they are super good and serve 3 people, so they are meant for a quick, small family dinner for people on the go. We tried it before, and the kids were super happy to have it again. After dinner, which we ate while watching part of Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse, we ventured out into the streets of Chicago to take pictures of the city at night. We didn't really have a plan, but quickly found we were only a 12-minute walk from Millennium Park, which is where the Bean is. We stopped for some pics along the Riverwalk as well.
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| View from our room. |
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| Riverwalk |
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| Each of the kids had their own photo shoots on their phones. |
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| Millenium Park |
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| The live tree smelled so good! |
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| The Bean! |
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| We had a great time there! |
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| On the way back to the hotel. |
The next morning, we enjoyed Marriott's excellent breakfast with more people than I have ever seen at a hotel breakfast!! The line was always long. Even the hotel gym was packed. All of the machines were in use while I was there, and there were 8 machines, plus people using free weights. Since our rooms were on the 14th floor and it was downtown Chicago during the break, I guess it's not too surprising how busy it was. We are more used to staying in hotels in the middle of Nebraska, Wyoming, or Iowa, which aren't really destination points.
The night before was slightly warmer than normal, but it snowed overnight, and the temperatures dropped significantly. So, the next day, when we ventured out before heading to the aquarium, it was freezing! Our time to enter was noon, so we had some time to wander around the area and see Lake Michigan from the other side. We even got to enjoy Chicago-style hot dogs from a stand before going in!
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| This was a protected area of Lake Michigan, but we heard that there were gale warnings on the lake due to the storms. |
And here are some of my favorite shots at the aquarium.
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| Feeding time! |
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| Seaweed native to California beaches! |
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| Beluga whale showing off. |
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| Beluga whale underwater. |
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| Penguins! |
The aquarium was amazing, as it should be since it's one of the best in the nation. I can see now why they stagger entrance times because it was so busy at each tank.
When we had seen everything, we left for an early dinner of Chicago-style pizza at Giordano's before our drive home. There was a snowstorm, so we went the slightly southern route, which helped, and we only tacked on a little bit of time. We still saw two semis and a car that slid off the road, which is always eye-opening.
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| Giordano's |
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| Look at the differences between their faces! |
We slept late the next day, Kade's birthday, partly because Chicago is in the Central Time Zone and partly because that drive wore us out! Kade had already decided we weren't going to ski that day, so the day was pretty low-key. We had waffles for breakfast, leftover pizza for lunch, and Kade requested the alfredo meal that we had on Christmas Eve for his birthday dinner. He decided later in the day that he wanted an ice cream cake for dessert, so I picked one up from DQ. We played some games, watched Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse, and Kade opened some gifts. It was a good day.
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| CDs (Sublime and Linkin Park) |
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| paintbrushes |
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| New shoes (they came a couple of days late, but he was really excited for them!) |
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| Kade got really sick a few days later. Luke sure loves cuddling with him! |
He saw friends the next day for New Year's Eve and will have a group celebration with some friends sometime soon to celebrate a few birthdays in their friend group.
Kade has made good friends at Schoolcraft College. He had a successful first semester and will be starting some harder classes next week for his second semester, which include calculus, computer science, and chemistry. He's still considering meteorology as a career, so he'll have some challenging math and science classes. He loves his job at Zumiez in the mall and is one of their top sales associates.
It's hard to believe it's 2026 now. Kade will be 20 in this calendar year! Happy Birthday to Kade!
