Chicago vacation Day 5 - September 18th

Last day and I was a bit sad. I didn't want to leave. I felt "alive" in Chicago, like there were all of these possibilities right around the corner. And the funny thing about all of these possibilities is that they made the days seem longer...weird, I know, but they did. The days blow by in a blur here at home...I wouldn't mind if time slowed down a little so we could enjoy things more as a family. I'm gonna have to figure out a way to make that happen :)
We wanted to wake up early so we didn't have to rush. We knew we wanted to be back home no later than 5:30 that evening so we could pick up Murphy from doggie day care, and we also knew that there were some things that we wanted to do before we left the city, so we hit it early. And we didn't have to wake her up...she just popped her head over the pack-n-play and was ready to go. She just wakes up cute.


Izzy became quite the little city girl during our short stay. She had the elevator thing completely figured out by day 2, but it took me till day 5 to record it. She would stand in front of the elevator door and wait for it to open, then walk to the back corner and turn around. Then, when the door would open, she'd march right out. The last 2 days, though, she seemed a little freaked out by the threshold of the elevator, so we had to walk her over it.

I really wanted to take some photos in a small part right outside of one of the entrances to the zoo on Tuesday, but we didn't think it was a good idea to push it any further with Izzy, so we decided to play a little "catch-up" before we hit the road home on Friday and headed back up to Lincoln Park. We drove around a while with no success in finding a parking spot, so we decided to drive by the apartments I used to live in when I lived in Chicago and photograph them, and here they are...
This was the first apartment I lived in....doesn't look like much, does it? Well, you'd be right. Due to the job I had with Dean Foods, I was on the road during most of the apartment search, and my old roommate/ex-boyfriend (at the time) found this place and thought it was up to par. Note the "ex" on the boyfriend...the only thing this place had going for it was wood floors and a cool view of the city from the kitchen, but that's about it. My apartment was the one on the 3rd floor.

Except for this. Taco & Burrito Place #3. THE BEST CHICKEN TACO YOU WILL EVER EAT (sober or not-so-much). I REALLY wanted a taco on this trip, but it was just to early to partake of the yummy goodness...save it for next time.

Here is apartment #2. I LOVED this apartment....hardwood floors, built-ins everywhere, patio in back. It doesn't look like much either, but it was a true gem of an apartment.

This was my last place in Chicago. It wasn't bad...I had a parking space (FINALLY, but it cost me an arm and a leg), and it had a GREAT location. This is what I remember when I think about wanting to walk out my front door in any direction and be able to find a great place to eat and some shopping. This was it.

Okay, enough reminiscing about that...We headed back over to the zoo, but still no luck with parking, so we bit the bullet and paid for the zoo parking. The zoo may be free, but they get you in the parking lot $17!!! Freakin' ridiculous, but people like us will pay it :) So, we walked through the zoo, but our timing was good enough to catch the seal feeding.

We got to the park I love, and hung out for awhile. This is just a cool shot of some asian grasses.

We went over to the fountain in the park, and there was a little girl Izzy's age there that had the same hairstyle as Izzy and a pink balloon that she was kind enough to let Izzy play with. We were all wondering if they were communicating with the ponytail antennaes sticking out of their head! :)

I put out a blanket hoping that we could just hang out for a bit..

but it didn't last long. She wanted to roam, until she found this bench. Then she wanted nothing more than to sit on it.


She even convinced her pappa that it was the most wonderful place to be...

Then we headed back to the fountain. While we were there, there was this woman walking her dog in the fountain. She was yappin on her phone the entire time, but went around us so the dog could continue walking....cute puppy!

Here we are checking out a squirrel that was running around in the trees.


Nice view from the zoo parking lot (except for a little bit of haze)

And then we headed out of the city :( We stopped in Merrilville to get gas and something to eat. I went in to get an ice cream cone, and this is what I had in my seat when I came back...a little MONKEY!


I had posted on Facebook last week about someone having a meltdown and decible levels that were causing permanent damage...make sure you're volume is at an appropriate level for this:

NOT FUN. But here she was just minutes later:

And this is my most favorite video that I took the entire trip....kinda think you'll figure out why...

Chicago vacation day 3 - September 16th

This was one of my favorite days of our vacation because we got to go the Lincoln Park Zoo. It's free and it's WONDERFUL...one of my favorite places. I have no idea how many times Joacim and I went there, but I know it was at least once or twice every visit. The only thing that was a bit of a downer was that they are doing some serious reconstruction of the pond, which ended up closing off our favorite bridge. It'll be open again next spring, so I guess we'll just have to make another trip up there!
Our first stop was at The Farm-In-the-Zoo. They have cows, goats, rabbits, chickens and a vegetable garden. Joacim and I had actually never been there before, so it was new for all of us. Here are some of the dairy cows they have there...very well-taken care of...

Next stop was at the Regenstein primate exhibit. This opened a few years ago, and it's fabulous!!! Here's Izzy and Joacim having some fun together in front of the gorillas

And here is the most disgruntled gorilla I've seen....I must admit it was intimidating when he was looking at us this way...

Just some snapshots of Izzy and me....



Checking out the kitties....

And the piggies...

This little guy wasn't a part of the zoo exhibit, but he seemed to want to be included....

She was VERY curious about the fishies....

Here she is with her Pappa in the one of the exhibits...

Meerkats are so cute...

This poor little bear. Ever since we've been coming here he's been this way. He had surgery on his jaw several years ago, but it caused his tongue to stick out. Doesn't seem to bother him, but he sure does look funny...

She was also curious about the seals...

I think she was most interested in the polar bear

We let Izzy walk around a lot because it didn't seem fair to have her in the sroller all the time. Sometimes, however, she would get a little sidetracked, so I'd have to chase her because, as you've seen before, she LOVES to be chased.

And she loves water, although she wasn't quite able to figure out that this was for drinking and not playing :)

Here we are watching the bears. Not such a great photo because of me in the reflection.

And Izzy and her belly button

And she finally sleeps....

After our trip to the zoo, we went back to the hotel and got ready to go to my friend Carrie's house for dinner. Carrie and I were roommates in college, and she lives out in the suburbs. But on our way there, we drove under the El...I've NEVER driven under one of these streets, and I felt so touristy but it was cool!

It took us FOREVER to get out there..it was rush hour, and there was an accident...need I say more? But once we got there, we had a great dinner. The kids at first, and here's a shot of Carrie's kidlets at the table...

Izzy was such a social little butterfly. She was playing with all the toys, rolling around on the floor with a matchbox car, running up their stairs...she was EVERYWHERE. And she still loves being chased..by anyone. Luckily, Carrie was willing to play the game.

All-in-all, it was a great, relaxing day