Chicago

This past weekend was the only one where we have the kids until sometime in August. Therefore, we did our "family" vacation. The four of us overnighted in Chicago. Saturday we went to early dinner at Medieval Times in Schaumburg. The kids are into that genre of stuff so we bit the expensive bullet and took them. We were to be there an hour before the show. Turns out that is so you have time to buy overpriced crap. Both of the kids had earned around $50 which they could spend (mostly) how they wanted. I quickly vetoed $40 wooden swords.



Christy loved the show! She was shrieking and hollering constantly. Our guy, the Blue Knight, even threw her a flower. She was beyond ecstatic. Nicky really liked it, too. There was no silverware used in the 12th century so we didn't get any either. It was all hands. The menu was tomato soup, 1/2 herb roasted chicken (yum!), potato and dessert. Messy but good.

The show was over by six so we drove downtown and took the kids up to the 94th floor observation tower at the John Hancock Building. It was rainy so visibility was only around 2 miles. Still, it was pretty cool for kids that have never been anywhere near that high up. Christy noticed there were spiders making webs outside the window. Determined little suckers!

After the drive back to the hotel Kurt took the kids back to the pool since we had to be up early on Sunday to check out and get back downtown.

Sunday we had 9 am timed tickets to see Mystical Creatures special exhibit at the Field Museum. It featured dragons, mermaids, and unicorns. All of us enjoyed it. Nick and Kurt read every stinking word of every stinking thing so we were there forever. After lunch the boys went to the dinosaur hall. One and a half hours later they weren't even half way through. I begged them to cut the last half down. They finished up in half an hour or so. We got back on the road for the usually five hour trip home.

While we were having supper in Freeport, IL Mom called to say they were having terrible storms here. We did see the sky was getting darker and bluer. I'm completely paranoid after all the tornadoes here. I found a radio station that was doing weather alerts. We were smack in the middle of a bunch of super ells. We missed the worst by about 6 miles, but still had to pull over for 30 minutes or so because of sheets of rain and terrific winds.



Now that we are home we've learned that the river is flooding again. It's already higher than it was in April and it's not expected to crest for another 5 hours. Mom and Dad have 5" of water in their basement and the well pit is filling with water. My aunt's water pump switch burned out so she's waiting for the plumber who is evidently at a farm where there are hundreds of hogs without water. One of the bridges in town is closed and truck loads of sandbags are going by.