St Patricks Day in Chicago

We were so disappointed that our plans for spring break all fell through and flights going anywhere were full, full, full.  We were going to go camping, but it rained and then the rest of the week we watched flights to Utah with nothing opening up.  Finally, we went camping on Thursday night with our new friends the Pittson's.  It was so much fun!  We loved the food, hiking, relaxing and just being in nature.  It is definitely different than Utah camping, but we enjoyed it.  We headed home late Friday night (after the Friday night flights filled up again) and really wanted to go somewhere fun.  Instead of looking at flights we were so tired we watched TV.  At midnight, we finally looked at flights and discovered that Chicago was open  AND was having their St. Patrick's day parade.  So we got packed and went to bed by 1, only to wake up 5 hours later to catch the flight.  We thought all our plans were for naught when my ID went missing on our shuttle bus.  Luckily, the bus came back around and I got it in time.  

We were on our way to Chicago for the first time.   We debated using transportation or getting a rental car.  In the end, having a place to stash our stuff was an important reason to have a car.  We headed straight down town and tried to find the parade.  

Dave told me it was 'unseasonably warm' in Chicago.   Since we were just wearing flip flops and camping outdoors, I packed us all a light jacket.  We were COLD!!  We pulled our extra clothes out and wore double layers and tried to stay out in the sun rather than between the sky scrapers.  We waded through huge crowds of partyers.  It was crazy with bright green everywhere.  Lots of teens, drugs and drinking, which made me nervous, but the kids didn't seem to notice and we didn't lose anyone.  

I  was so confused by what was happening.  In Utah , a parade starts, everyone SITS and watches for 30 mins and then it is over.  This was totally different.  Everyone was standing and watching (so the kids couldn't see at all) the parade route was only a 1/2 mile long, but the parade went on for 3 hours!!  So you could come and go at will (and I was afraid we were going to 'miss' it for hours before hand!).  After watching with the kids on our necks for 5 mins, we snuck a spot in the front for the kids and they watched for a while getting some prizes a long the way.  

We stopped in for some lunch (LATE).  I was surprised that we waited until 3 with really no meal, but the kids did great!   We enjoyed warming up before starting out to sight see more.  

We walked back to the 'bean' which was streaming with people.  It was so interesting!  

 We played in a little patch of snow... unseasonably warm in Chicago means COLD to me.

We walked over to the bridge to see the river turned green.  It was so awesome.  Jackson got pulled into a street show that was actually horrible (they collected $$ and then didn't do a show).  So Jackson was disappointed.  

We walked shivering and tired back to the car.  We stopped at McDonalds for a bathroom and the kids begged for food, but we talked them into waiting for a deep dish Chicago pizza.  We ordered it to go (the wait was insane) and then took a look at the pier while waiting.  

We picked up the pizza and headed to the Residence Inn to eat and relax.  The pizza  was good, but I like regular pizza better.  We went swimming, but were so tired that it didn't last long.  We crashed!I love the comfort of Residence Inn with a separate bedroom (not to mention awesome breakfasts!)

We enjoyed breakfast and then got ready for Church.  It is so awesome to find a church anywhere.  This ward had quite a few young families and they were friendly and happy with us.  We went to all our meetings andthen the temple president offered to let us into the grounds of the temple.  so we were able to show our kids the Chicago Temple.  

We went to the first McDonald's ever and killed some time before heading to the airport really early.  

We were a bit nervous because we were having a layover in Indianapolis.  If we missed the flight there was no way out of Chicago the rest of the night, but we made the flight without problems.  A kind woman handed my girls some princess coloring pads and that made their flight so much better.  We got home late, happy we were finally able to travel somewhere.