We took a late morning. The kids got up somewhat early, had some breakfast and then went for a swim. Eventually we checked out of the hotel, dragging our luggage across the bleak and savage landscape of downtown Chicago. Mom wanted to the the giant silver bean at Millenium Park. She found it very exciting although the kids mostly wanted to sit down to recover from the brutal hike.
After that we found a science fair out on the northern grassy area. Mom and I thought it was interesting but the kids weren’t very enthused about that either. Alice did meet with a young woman dressed in balloons masquerading as a jelly fish. We hung out there for a while until Mom got tired of Corwin asking “can we go to the aquarium now?” and we headed out to hang out at the aquarium.
The kids had fun there, although the dolphin show was really just a dolphin practice session. The dolphin area just finished a 9 month renovation and the staff is still getting the dolphins back in shape. Even so it was packed and we had to get there about 20 minutes early to get a seat. At least it was free. The kids weren’t as well behaved so I didn’t think the kids deserved the normally demanded trip to the gift shop. Mom, however, is a softer touch and Charles had been better than the other two, so Mom let him get a … wait for it … a plush ocean creature. This time it was another white sided Pacific dolphin, but half the scale of Timmy. So naturally it became “Mini-Timmy” and Charles gave it much love on the way home, despite fighting with Alice over him. Mini-Timmy did enjoy watching out the window on the train on the way home.
After enjoying the fishes we headed back to the train station and caught our train home. The kids were actually well behaved on the trip and when we got home, the house was still there, unburned and unflooded. Which makes it a good trip from my point of view.
