We arrived here outside of Chicago yesterday afternoon, and have been enjoying our time here. Campgrounds in the Chicago area are difficult to find in general, but this time of year (end of the season) is almost impossible. We're actually staying in Crete, IL, which is about an hour drive into the city.

On the way up here, we stopped by to visit Abraham Lincoln's home where he and his family lived before he became President. It was a neat little stop, free to the public, and the house tour was interesting. It was definitely worth the stop.

Today (Tuesday) was a good day, but not all that involved. Michelle, as those of you that know her will know, loves cake decorating, and used to teach the Wilton cake decorating classes. Just outside of Chicago in Darien, they have a Wilton school, which is part of a retail store, so we had to make sort of a pilgrimage there today. She actually got to see one of the authors of several of her favorite cake decorating books.

After the school, we went down into Chicago, and drove by the Sears Tower, which is the tallest building in the U.S. It was amazing to be at the bottom of it and look up to see just how far into the sky it reaches. We opted not to ride the elevator up to the sky deck since several of us suffer from a fear of heights and we didn't want to ruin our day!

After the tower we made a beeline for the American Girl Place, which evidently has a brand new store and is way cooler than the one in NYC. Peanut and I found a nice parking spot and hung out while the girls were in there. After the AGP, we went over to Millennium Park, which has a ton of cool artwork. One of the featured pieces is the Bean, a huge mirrored structure that looks like it's liquid metal, and it is really cool.

We actually got kicked out of the park, not noticing the miniscule "dogs not allowed" signs on the way in. Not a big deal, with parking at basically $5 per 20 minutes, we weren't staying long anyway.

After a quick stop for a post card, we were neck deep in traffic, and made it back here for dinner.

We are heading back to town tomorrow to yet another science museum, evidently one of the top 15 in the world, so it should be fun.

Wednesday Update:

If you read the blog from Pittsburgh, we had stated we thought that the Carnegie Science center was the best in the US. We were SOOO wrong. Today, we spent the entire day at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. This is definitely a must see if you are ever in the area, and is, by far, the best science museum we've visited. Pretty good for us since this will be the last of the trip. They had all kinds of exhibits, from aeronautics to DNA, to live dissection of cow eyeballs (the girls did this), and the story of Poop (the girls also participated in this.) It was lots of fun.

For reference, if you visit here, drive pass the museum parking and see if the main lot has any spaces. It's outdoors, but it'll save you $14 if you can find room. I discovered this AFTER we parked in the main lot, but nonetheless, the museum was great.

We finished up our day with some authentic deep dish stuffed pizza from Giordanos. Once piece will do you, and it was great. We figured we had to have some while we were here.

We're heading down to the big town of Jefferson, Iowa tomorrow to visit our old buddy Russ and his family. Not sure what sights there will be to see, but it'll be great to see them again.

Faith's blog:
Yesterday I went to the American Girl Place. It was really cool. It was also really, really big! It was way better than the one in New York City. I really loved it.

Kenzie's blog:
We had so much fun here! Again we saw the American Girl Place. There’s the Sears Tower, the Chicago pizza pie that we ate and Chicago’s famous. . . BEAN! That’s what I call it. It’s actually called Cloud Gate!! But I think it looks like a bean. We will be home in five days. I miss my home, my friends and, surprisingly, my school! Talk to you soon. Happy Halloween!

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From Chicago

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