Chicago! Day Three

I think this was possibly the longest day ever!!! (But in a good way.)
We had to wake up at 4:45am to be at the Amtrack Train Station by 5:30am to catch our 6:10am train. Thankfully it's within minutes of Elizabeth's house. Turns out that the train was delayed! It didn't arrive until 7:30am. We were all so excited about riding the train. We sat in the upper portion of the lounge car. We sat at tables and got ready for our ride. Soon after we departed the conductor came around to punch our ticket. Thomas was excited to meet him! He punched Thomas' ticket to look like a smiley face. (Thomas thought it was just like The Polar Express!) Along the ride we had many frequent stops. Sometimes we had to let other passengers off. Sometimes we had to let other passenger and freight cars pass and sometimes we had to switch tracks. It took a lot longer to get there with all the stops along the way. Finally, we arived at Union Station!

Train station in Champiagn,IL.

All aboard!

Windmills along the way.

Pulling into Union Station...all the other tracks!

Union Staion platform...nothing like Harry Potter!

 We had to hail a cab to get to The Field Musesm. Oh, what an experience that was! I think our eyes were closed the whole time. Thomas did great and thought we were in a race.

It didn't take long and we were finally there! What a beautiful building! We were in awe of its size. In fact, after spending four hours there, we didn't get to see every exhibit! We LOVED the dinosaur exhibit. We also loved the whale exhibit. We weren't allowed to take pictures in that one. They had skeletons of whales. One even had the baleen in their mouth! It was amazing! There was also a Chocolate exhibit (yum), a bird exhibit, a wildreness animal exhibit and an exhibit that made you feel like you shrunk and were underground. We didn't get to the African or Egyptian exhibit. While in the museum we could see out the windows and check out Lake Michigan! It was so blue! Going to the museum was one of our "favorites" of the whole trip!

Sue!

"But Mom, it's only $975!"

Lake Michigan

After the museum we got into another cab and went to Millennium Park. We saw the outdoor concert area and the "bean". It was so cool!

Our reflection in the Bean.

We then went to get our first ever slice of Chicago Pizza. It was very good and Thomas enjoyed it. We didn't get to any other sights in Chicago. I guess we'll just have to go again some day.

We took another cab after dinner back to Union Station to catch our 8pm train back to Champaign. We were also the first ones on so we got to pick where we wanted to sit. We sat at the front of one of the cars. Although, we didn't realize how much wiggling the car in front of us was going to be moving when the door between the two cars were open. Thomas slept the whole train ride back. Looking at the night time city light was very pretty but when we got to all those corn fields, it was a very dark ride! We give Chicago two thumbs up! It was such a big, exciting place to visit!

Adventures on Day Two!

On Friday, Elizabeth and Brian both had classes to attend in the morning. We decided to take their dog for a walk to the park that was right down the street. Thomas had fun getting his wiggles out and we had fun looking at the beautiful homes and checking out everyone's front yard gardens. The leaves were just so beautiful and Thomas had lots of fun playing in them.

 

When Brian got back from class, we went to lunch. It was a small cafe. Thomas ordered a blueberry milkshake and even ate tomoates and a pickle. After lunch we drove through more cornfields. This time we stopped to get some pictures. The corn is grown there for animals; not humans. Therefore; it doesn't have to be harvested when it's green. it was very cold and windy when we went. It was hard to Thomas to look up at the camera. (I also took video of this and will try to post.)

Afterwards, we went to the Curtis Apple Orchard. It was absolutely amazing of a place. We bought two bags to fill with apples. The only kinds that we were allowed to pick were the Golden Delicious and the Gold Rush kind. We also picked out a pumpkin for Liz and Brian's house. It weighed 27 pounds! Thomas got the hang of using the little claw to take down the apples from the tree. Some were so tiny. Elizabeth plans to make some applesauce with all the apples. They were very yummy!

We went to pick up Elizabeth from class and stopped at the church on campus where Brian works. It was so pretty inside! We also got some Univerysity of Illinois souveniors and then headed back to their house.

We had to get ready for Elizabeth's concert. She plays in the University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra. It was a wonderful preformance and the concert hall was breathtaking. I loved learning all the little facts about it. Elizabeth should be a tour guide! Sadly, Thomas didn't make it though the concert. He fell asleep after the first performance. I guess all the travel caught up with him. After the concert, we had a little surprise for mom for her birthday. Elizabeth had ordered speciality cupcakes and her friends helped us celebrate. Day Two proved to be another fun, busy day.