Police Activity at Roosevelt

Our day 2 in Chicago was jam packed with more fun. Yesterday, on our way home from Sears Tower, we familiarized ourselves with the public transportation by taking the train back to our hotel.  It was a most pleasant experience, and we were ready to take it again on Day 2 to head north to the Field Museum.  Well....it was a little different experience the second time around.

So as we passed the turnstiles, we noticed a cop and police dog patrolling our stop.  Another passenger glared at the police dog, and he erupted in a crazy bark at this guy.  I was kind of surprised that they had a K9 unit in the train station and wondered if something was up.  Well we boarded the train and made it one stop before the train stops, lights go out, and the air conditioning stops.  An announcement is made that the train system will be stopped for an indefinite amount of time due to "Police Activity at Roosevelt".  Roosevelt just so happened to be our stop.  Perfect!

Well just as we were about to clear the train and hail a cab, the train started back up again.  We got out of that Roosevelt Station faster than all get up and headed to Chicago's Natural History museum to see Jakob's other love.  Meet Sue. 

She's the largest, most-complete T-Rex in the world.  It was pretty impressive, and Jakob was in heaven.  He loves dinosaurs.  He even took a course in college on the evolution and history of dinosaurs.  I wish I had a picture on my camera of Jakob with all the dinosaurs.  Jenny took some great pictures of him though.

The outside of Field Museum.

The main hall of Field Museum.

And of course, we had to stop by the DNA exhibit for Wes!

 

After the museum, we decided to walk to the famous Cloud Gate sculpture in Millenium Park.  This walk was a few miles long, but luckily we found some pretty gardens and this beautiful fountain on our way.  These lovebirds are still in love after 5 years of marriage!

10 million miles of walking later we make it to the "bean".  I love this picture of me taking a picture of Jenny and Jakob taking a picture.  Welcome to the vortex.

Next up we decided to head back to the hotel to clean up before heading to Magnificent Mile for some dinner and shopping!  And that is where my fondest childhood memories came back.  American Girl dolls pretty much defined my childhood.  I played with them every. single. day.  They vacationed with me.  They tea partied with me.  They went to school with me on show and tell days.  I got one every year from Santa, and I loved them.  So to be standing inside the original American Girl store was really awesome!

The store had everything!  It was like its own AG city with a cafe, doll hospital, and salon where they really cut and style the doll's hair.  If I ever have a daughter, I'm taking my mom and little girl for a full American Girl experience.

After I got to relive my childhood, we walked right across the street to have drinks and appetizers up on the 96th floor of the John Hancock building.

We got up to the top at the perfect time.  It was just starting to get dark, and we saw the city come to life at night.  The martinis for the girls and Manhattans for the guys were really delicious too.  I think this experience ranks one of the top on everyone's lists as best thing we did.  Here's our view from the north.

The best views from the John Hancock is from the south side of the building.  We heard the ladies room had floor to ceiling windows of this view.  So of course I grabbed my camera and headed to the bathroom.  It was pretty incredible, and the guys thought their bathroom should have a view too.

I love Chicago.