Chicago

We were in Chicago!

Well, kinda.

We were really camping in Indiana since there were not any nice campgrounds close to Chicago.

The campground was packed! Almost every site was filled with campers.

Our spot was a back-in site and we were rusty. We hadn’t had to back in for a while so we took a while longer. There might have been some moments where we had to take a break and not strangle each other but we finally did it.

The funniest part was that it was a wide, paved site. We were struggling to get straight so we had to keep going forward and backing in.

The campers next to us were probably watching the whole ordeal so we were looking like newbies. It was a little embarrassing.

We set up and settled in for a couple hours before we headed out to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch UFC 229. Connor McGregor was fighting Khabib and we were really excited to watch it.

The restaurant was packed full and there was only standing room at the bar. We were willing to just stand in the lobby area because we just wanted to watch the fight anyway. We were waiting for about an hour before we were seated but it was perfect timing since the main event was coming on in the next 5 minutes.

We had drinks and food while we watched the intense fight between Conor and Khabib. We weren’t happy with the results but because Conor lost. There were a lot of people who left unhappy but overall, we had a fun time going out and watching the fight.

The next morning, we headed into Chicago. The drive there took about an hour. It was hard because there were so many aggressive drivers. Jared had to lay on the horn a few times, but we were able to park in a parking garage near where we wanted to be.

It was a smaller garage but inexpensive compared to the other garages we had seen in the area.

Our first stop was to redeem our Groupon for the Double Decker Trolley Tour. It was a hop on/hop off deal that would take us around the city.

It was nice to be able to sit and let the guide introduce us to the surrounding area.

It was great because we were able to see a lot of the city on the bus.

Our first hop off was Navy Pier. They had shops, boat rides available and a children’s museum. We walked around a bit and had a little snack on the pier.

We hopped back on the bus and took in some more sights.

Our necks were hurting from staring up for so long. The buildings were huge.

I’m reminded of when I worked at an assisted living community and our oldest resident (at 104 years old) would tell me about how she worked at the Sears Tower when she was younger. I thought it was the coolest thing to see after hearing all about it.

Our next stop was the John Hancock building. We were going to catch another trolley there to Wrigley Field. We had to wait a little bit so we went into the mall!

It was pretty cool because there were at least 7 floors of stores! We even stopped and got out complimentary popcorn. The trolley tour offered a small bag of popcorn and it was the perfect amount.

When the trolley was ready to go, we jumped on and headed to Wrigley Field. There wasn’t a game but it was nice to see the outside of it.

It was a nice bus ride out except that there was so much traffic!

There was a huge Muddy Waters mural on our way back.

We stopped at Millennium Park too! We saw the “Bean”.

After a walk around the park, we were getting hungry. We were excited for the feast that was yet to come.

Deep dish pizza! We went to Lou Malnati’s and it was amazing.

We walked back to Millennium Park for the night tour.

 

We didn’t want to miss it since it was the last night tour of the season. Our tour guide was funny and did lots of different impersonations.

We got to see all the buildings and sights with their flashing lights.

After the tour we headed back to the trailer. It was a long and tiring day so we were glad to be back home.

The next morning, we headed back into the big city. We wanted to park in the same garage as the day before, but it turned out to be full. When we got to the gate, the machine wouldn’t spit out a ticket and stated they were full and would only allow pre-paid parking passes through.

Getting out of the parking garage was hard since we had to back out of a tiny driveway. Once we finally got out, we drove back onto the streets and pulled over to go over a new action plan.

We decided to reserve a spot at the parking structure we were just at to bypass the parking machine at the front.

We got back to the parking garage and Jared attempted to scan the barcode for the parking garage, but nothing happened. We ended up having to call the help center. After one call center employee “accidentally” hung up on us, we got an employee who was able to help us. They had to manually open the gates for us.

Unfortunately, there was a truck behind us and we had to apologize for the wait. It was a little embarrassing but we were able to get through eventually.

After finally parking, we hopped on the bus and headed to the Field Museum!

But first, I got a Chicago-style hotdog. Well, minus all the vegetables I didn’t like (tomatoes and onions). The Serrano peppers were great! Jared wanted his dog with mustard.

Inside the museum was awesome! Apparently, the museum is only able to show 1% of their actual collection at any given time. There was so much to see so we dived right in.

The first thing we saw was a Titanosaur, the world’s largest known dinosaur!

This was just the front half of the dinosaur! The actual bones but they had them on display behind the large reconstruction.

There were so many animals to see in the Animal Exhibit. It was pretty cool to know that we had seen a good number of these animals out in their natural habitats.

They had a pretty cool Mummy Exhibit with real mummies!

There should be a disclaimer before anyone goes into this exhibit. I watched as a woman awkwardly answered ‘yes, that’s a real dead body’ to her kids. I was a little freaked out by the naked mummies and graphic pictures.

The next exhibit was the Evolving Planet Exhibit. One of our favorite parts was of the dinosaurs!

We saw Sue the Dinosaur!

The evolution of homo sapiens was also part of the exhibit and Lucy was there!

It was amazing because we learned about Lucy at Davis!

After a full day of the museum, we were tired and our feet were hurting. We took a Lyft back into the downtown area and walked around the River Walk.

We enjoyed a romantic walk by the water.

We decided to stop at an Irish Pub we saw on the way to Wrigley Field. We saw all the Halloween décor and wanted to stop by because we love Halloween!

Jared tried a Starcut Squishy Cherry Cider – he thought it was okay. I enjoyed my draft combo – the Black Widow (Allagash White, Vander Mill Cider, and Black Currant). We didn’t know they mixed drafts so it was a cool experience. We shared the short rib nachos and would highly recommend them! They stacked the nachos high and brought out extra jalapeños!

It was a nice night to wrap up our journey through Chicago.

But what is a trailer trip if not for all the leaks you find along the way.

We found a water leak underneath the window while it rained in Indiana. We were checking out of our campsite when we found it so we put a Band-Aid on it and hit the road again.