Chicago to Milwaukee

 Tziporah appropriately crying in front of the Chicago Waterworks building.  She was upset because I took away her chocolate.  Can you blame her?

 Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Millennial Park

 Before finding the fountain:  "Mom, where's the car?"  After:  "Can we go to the gift shops now?"  Navy Pier.

 This shot is so funny.  Ptolemy was dying to have me take his picture like this.  I put the Instagram caption on it, "I was four years old.  I just wanted to do nuffin.  But my parents were out of control.  It was a new city every day!  Can you help me, doc?"

 Favorite

 

 Xanthe gets more worn out than your average kid.  I think it's because a lot of what happens around her doesn't register with her, and she gets bored.  I haven't figured her out yet, but I had a lot of time to observe her on this trip and I feel like I learned a lot.  She loved lying under the jelly bean sculpture.

 Saying good-bye at the airport.  I didn't know Midway was so much closer to the city than O'Hare.  Good to know!

 Coloring!  Man oh man!  The food here was so good.

So.  Where were we?  Monday, our last day in Chicago, we went downtown again, to the parking garage we had found Sunday when we went to the beach.  (1212 Lake Shore Drive) They had an early bird special, in after 10, out by 4, and it's only $12.  Other options cost around $40.  From there, we walked to everything, starting with the American Girl Doll store.  What a place!  You would not believe the scenario repeated over and over:  a mother, a grandmother and a little girl or two, buying dolls, accessories, getting the doll's ears pierces and hair done, having tea, carrying armloads of boxes out of the store.  Scott observed that the children who were buying less seemed the most happy.  There was pressure in the air, for sure, but it was exciting, too.  Freestone observed, "Uh, American Girl dolls are just regular dolls that cost a lot of money."  Bingo.

Ptolemy wanted to go in the Disney Store, where we found $6 stuffed animals on sale.  Things like the minor monsters from Monsters, Inc., and washed-up princesses.  Each child chose one, and they all managed to find a good one.  Ptolemy found a cute little Nemo.  Perfect, since the only thing Tizzy wants to watch in the car is Finding Nemo.  She wails, "Nemo!  Nemo!  Nemo!  Nemonemonemo!"  Just like Nemo's dad.

When we walked to the Millenial Park to have a picnic of cold pizza from the night before, there was a press event starring Dale Earnhardt Jr., who if the interviewer is to be believed, has been the most popular racer in Nascar for 10 years.  He's certainly one of the only racers I've ever heard of.  It was fun to sit on the lawn and listen to the interview with all the excited fans.  Nascar is so big in that region, I mean 3 hours from the Indy 500, I thought there would be more people.  But downtown Chicago is hard to get to, as we found out.  Traffic in and out was heavy at all times, even Sunday night at 8:45!

Too soon, it was time to take Ruby and Scott to the airport.  Scott was wishing he could stay and continue on the adventure with us, but Ruby was anxious to get home and sleep in her bed for one night before heading off to girls' camp.  It took awhile to get to Midway, then it took another while to get out of the city going north to Milwaukee.

I had asked the kids if they wanted to go straight to Madison or take a little detour and see Milwaukee.  They voted for the detour, so we arrived in the city at twilight.  I had looked up a restaurant on diners, drive-ins and dives, but when we pulled up, it looked like...a dive.  Well, it's right there in the title of the show, right?  Taking 5 kids into a place that looked like a bar on Beck Street seemed ill-advised.  We seemed to be in a Hispanic neighborhood from the signs.  We found a darling little Mexican place with a patio.  It had just rained hard and the golden light glistened off the water and illuminated church steeples and water fountains.  The kids were relaxed and happy in the outdoors, and the food was cheap and delicious.  When the little kids went to the restroom, Ari and I kicked back at the table.  I said, "Well, here we are in Milwaukee."  For some reason, I captured that moment with beautiful Ari and the magic time of day, and I'll always remember it.

We got to Madison too late to see anything, which was disappointing to me, but I've been there a number of times, and I had to remind myself that the kids didn't care.  They were only too happy to lay their heads down on the soft, clean pillows at the Springhill Suites, and so was I, because the next day was our big driving day.  I love to drive, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't sleepy.  Ya gotta get across the great plains somehow!