Photo Story Friday: Our Chicago Adventure

In case you don’t normally follow me (in which case you are missing out on oodles of fun), we went to Chicago this past weekend to visit the Museum of Science and Technology and see monster trucks.  Only, we neglected to consider one thing.  It was St. Patties Day weekend.  (Remember in The Fugitive?  …Parade…dye the river green…chaos in the streets?)

The hotel receptionist recommended we leave our car and take a train into the city. 

Hayseeds that we are, we reluctantly took a train schedule and herded our bouncing troops onto the waiting shuttle.

This is not a pose.  Don’t they look so patient…waiting for their first train ride?

Bag pipers played beautifully on the platform.  I could listen to them all day long. 

When the train finally came, we found seats on the upper level and our oldest boy turned towards us and said, “This is like, like the trip of a lifetime.  It’s definitely something we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.”

Union Station was beyond huge.  We didn’t have time to figure out what bus would take us to the museum.  We had pre-purchased tickets for a tour at noon.  So, we decided to bite the bullet and just hail a cab. 

Which was an experience all on it’s own. 

While the cab lurched, swerved, screeched and honked, my wide-eyed little hayseeds soaked it all in. 

Well, some of them did. 

In spite of the fascinating city around us, I couldn’t keep my little guy from jamming his finger through a hole in the back of the front seat. 

You’ll have this. 

My oldest took pictures out every window he could reach. It wasn’t a very nice day.  Thankfully, we made it to the museum in one piece, with all of our belongings, and with 30 minutes to spare before our scheduled tour.

The German U-505 and several airplane exhibits were what attracted us to this museum.  But, since this post is already too long, I’ll save those pictures for a separate post.  They’re cool, though. 

Here are a few of the other areas we enjoyed.

Who doesn’t love a house of mirrors?

Or walking through the strange wall of “blue”?

Is it just me, or do the words, “Beam me up, Scottie.” come to mind for anyone else?

Saturday night, we went to see Monster Trucks.  Friends told us to take ear plugs.  So I put five colorful pairs in a small baggy in my purse. 

“You can’t take this big bag of candy inside.” said the lady who searched my purse at the door. 

“They’re EARPLUGS, because we’re taking kids to see monster trucks.”  I’ll admit, I was pretty amused, but mostly annoyed.  She had to feel them to make sure, and still looked doubtful when she handed them back to me.

For the record, I wouldn’t dream of bringing in a baggie of candy when I can pay an arm and a leg for a cup of water in the stands. ;)  

But look at this face. 

Every time Spark Plug the clown did something funny, or a truck did something exciting, this little face turned around to look at his brothers in an expression that said, “Isn’t this the coolest thing ever?”

So I guess it was a great finale to an exciting day. 

Mama and Papa Hayseed were just pretty dern happy to make it back to the hotel (with all accounted for) and fall into bed.