We Take Ourselves With Us

After two wonderful days in Chicago, we planned a daylong stop at Six Flags Great America on our way to the Wisconsin Dells.  It would sub for our canceled trip to Cedar Point so that the kids still got some quality coaster time.  Our thought we to get there early, but we're us.  So, we rolled up on Gurnee around 1 pm; then, we needed lunch at Cracker Barrel because road trip. All of this slow walking as travelers had a benefit: we drove and ate through the rain, leaving the sun for the afternoon at Six Flags.   Here's a story: Shortly after the then-named Marriott's Great America opened in the late 70s, my father took my sister and me there.  We couldn't believe something like this possible.  We had been to the old DandiLion Park a few times, but wow, a real themed amusement park, that was a game changer.  We only went once, but I can remember much of that trip, including that it seemed huge and hours away from our house in St. Francis.  Going back after a lifetime of

After falling into a dead sleep Saturday night, Sunday got off to a slower start.  Harper eventually drifted down to join me n the lobby.  Her reaction here was triggered by a spoon mishap.  Love her :) Okay, let's talk about Divvy-bikes.  Look how lovely they are in this stock photo: They're all over Chicago, including in front of our hotel.  "Let's ride bikes," we thought.  So, we got 4 Divvy bikes and started riding to breakfast, mapping our route via phone GPS.  You need to check your bike in every 30 minutes or you'll get more charges.  So, problem #1: when we did this, our bikes locked up and the machine wouldn't give us another code.  We needed to get across town for brunch, so after much "discussion" about the bikes, we gave up and grabbed a cab.  More on the bikes later. We joined our friends Alyson and Michael and their daughter Meredith at Sunnyside Up for a crazy yummy brunch: bacon pancakes, confetti pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes

Just in case we were looking for validation of our decision to head to Chicago and skip Cedar Point, Mother Nature provided it: an absolutely perfect blue sky day in the (admittedly, still windy) city.  (For the record, it poured all day in Sandusky, and almost none of the rides at CP opened.) I've been to Chicago bunches of times, and we've been here with the kids twice before.  But, we've never stayed as far south as McCormick Place, which gave us a new neighborhood to explore.  After arriving very late Friday (we checked in about 11), we were hungry Saturday morning and set off for breakfast.  Our path took us past the Willie Dixon Blues Heaven Foundation, which featured a lovely garden in tribute to Blues legends (note the sky ... see, perfect!). We were walking up a section of Michigan Ave call the Motor Row District, which is where all the dealerships were located beginning in the early 1900s.  History!  Plus, we also found the historic home of Chess St