Chica-GO or Chica-STAY?

So, I thought after our trip to Chicago that I would blog about it. Plus I had a special request from my good pal Sherrell! :) I already blogged about my favorite part of the whole trip....but now I fill you in on the trip itself! :) So we left for Chicago, IL on Friday July 27th around 5a.m. I wanted us to leave early because I wanted us to get there early enough to actually do something. LOL So our gps says we should arrive around 9:45a.m. (I believe that's what it said) So we're just driving along. Singing songs, enjoying the car ride. Well it approaches 9:45a.m. and our GPS says we still have a long ways to go. We were SO confused. We figured maybe we put the address in wrong? Maybe the GPS is broken? Hmmmmm? What could it be? After re-checking to make sure our destination was the right address we kinda just sit back in silence. All of a sudden I blurt out "TIME CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" hahahahahaha! Illinois is an 1hr behind Michigan. My husband claims me as brilliant and we continue on our journey. It only took us about 4hrs to get there. Which means we got there around 11a.m. The hotel we stayed in was called the Radisson. Located in Des Plaines, IL. It was 1.5miles from the O'Hare Chicago Airport. I was confused as to why the airport claimed to be in Chicago when we were clearly in Des Plaines...but whatever. So, we check into our hotel early. I was delighted to discover, once we reached our room, that we had a sleep number king size bed!!!!! I had always wanted to try one out! See what all the fuss was about. Well, once we dropped our stuff off, we didn't have much time before packing up the back-pack (filled with diapers, sippy cups, snacks for little kids, extra clothes....etc etc etc.) and heading downstairs to meet the shuttle bus at 11:30a.m. The hotel provided a complimentary shuttle that would leave every half our on the hour and half hour marks. So we rushed to be down in the lobby at 11:30 only to find out the bus had left a little bit early. Oh well. It was nice outside, so we sat outside and waited for the Noon bus. Eventually we made it to the O'Hare Airport where the Blue Line ran on the CTA Metro system. Let me say up front. NOTHING is clear in Chicago. There are no clear instructions on ANYTHING. They just expect you to know where to go. So we arrive at this terminal. I'm paying attention to what door the bus dropped us off at. The main stream of people seem to be flowing off to the right. So we follow. :)Thank goodness for people else we would've stood around in the terminal ALL day! We take an elevator up. I kept looking to figure out what floor we were on but couldn't find a number. There was a HUGE Cubs sign but nothing else. Silly me didn't put two and two together. The floors weren't numbered. They were categorized by Chicago type stuff. Well I didn't end up figuring that out til Theo told me on our way back. Anyways...we take an elevator up to a MAD frenzy at the Metro. Everyone's rushing to get tickets and there are long lines. I felt overwhelmed IMMEDIATELY! This is the moment I then remember, I HATE big crowds. I literally feel like I can't breathe. Here in Michigan everyone's so spread out even though it's a city, you don't get that choked up hussle-bussle city feel. To be honest. Hindsight, we probably should've turned around and gone back to the hotel and just relaxed that day. But of course....then I thought "Oh I can do this!" I stop trying to focus on my suffocating feeling and overwhelmingness. Theo purchases our passes with very little problem. That is after I found an attendant and asked if we had to pay for the boys. Because, there were of course NO postings of who had to pay on the Metro line. Like I said...Chicago just assumes you know things. After the passes are purchased we then take the handicap elevator to the platform. Of course we can't figure out which of the 3 buses to get on...but we figure "eh! This is only 1 line...it has to eventually get us where we wanna go." Well, let me just say. I've ridden a Metro in D.C. (several times) AND the subway in New York (also a decent amount of times) and I knew we could switch over to different color lines to get as close to our end destination as possible. Our end destination that day was The Navy Pier where the USO was located and the Chicago Children's Museum. My husband didn't listen to me that we could switch lines and so, my loving...oh so wonderful husband got us off at a stop TWO MILES from where we needed to be!!!!! TWO MILES!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not saying 2 miles is too much to walk...BUT...when we're JUST starting our day out?!?! So, Theo keeps telling me "Oh! We're almost there! We're almost there!" Yeah...we never were. I was so frustrated, hungry and tired. Mind you, we hadn't eaten lunch yet. Just had breakfast and snacks in the car. We FINALLY make it to the Navy Pier's USO. Which for those of you who don't know...is basically a place for only Military where you can go and rest. They have like a REALLY nice living room type set up. With TV, magazines, computers, a play area for the kids. A kitchen with a fridge full of free drinks! They also had bowls of chips, crackers and other goodies on every table! I felt like I was in heaven after walking all that way. The only flaw to the USO....they have NO bathroom! So you have to go back out into the crowd and find your way to the public bathroom and stand in line. But once we were at the USO, we were able to snack, re-fuel, change diapers and just BREATHE without being in the MASSIVE crowd. SOOOO nice. The USO might have been my favorite part of Friday. haha! Anyways....after resting there for awhile we then proceed to head to the Children's Museum. Which wasn't far from the USO. It was free for all of us to get in! It was amazing. The first Children's museum Isaiah had ever been to! He LOVED it!!!!! LOVED it! They even had this designated areas for baby's who couldn't walk. It was amazing. A little crowded, but the museum was big enough that you didn't feel suffocated. After that we were all STARVED!!!! So Theo directs us to Giodorno's Famous Chicago Stuffed Pizza. We, of course had to do more walking. OH! Let me take a time out to say, we didn't realize that on the metro, not every stop is handicap accesable. I can't remember when we had to do this, but I know it was Friday, we had to literally carry the double jogging stroller (with both boys in it-Isaiah weighs 40lbs and Collin 20lbs) up a HUUUUUGE flight of stairs! I can't remember exactly where they were or anything...but we did that about 3 times. So add that to my exhaustion list. So back to the pizza place. Theo had talked this place up. He had gone to Chicago for work back in May and had raved about it. Love it. Wanted to take me there. So anyways, when he explained to me this pizza...I had my doubts I would like it. It was stuffed pizza with sauce on top. I'm not a fan of having sauce on TOP of my cheese. LOL Well...needless to say...I was right. I didn't like it. But I did eat two slices which made me feel like I was going to bust a gut. I was SOOOO full. So I'll give them that much. I've NEVER eaten just 2 pieces of pizza and felt so full. LOL That was pretty much the end of day 1. Day 2-Saturday! Saturday was better. We finally learned to figure which stops were handicap! We also got off of a stop that was WAYYYYY closer to where we needed to be. Saturday we went to The Shedd Aquarium. That was NOT as great as I expected. We had to pay $8 for me and that only allowed us to see all different kinds of fish (basic fish) and a few sting rays. No sharks, no whales, no dolphins. Nothing cool! No eels or jelly fish. It was lame and WAY overly crowded. Of course we spent WAY more time standing in line, than we even spent in the aquarium itself. Once we were done there we walked ALLLLLL along the lake. It was so far! We walked about 2miles back to the Navy Pier. We stopped in the USO to catch a breathe and get some refreshments. I love that place! We ended up eating at this AWESOME place called Epic Burger. I'm pretty sure that was the most amazing part of Chicago. Most certainly the best food I ate while I was there!!!! Basically it's all organic. The beef is organic...I'm not a meat person, but that beef tasted SOOOO good. The cheese, all the veggies are grown right there in Illinois! It's soooo awesome! I am completely obsessed. Sadly they're only in Chicago. :( Oh well! I'm glad I got to experience the great taste of burger. Day 3-Sunday! Sunday was short. Mostly because we had to drive back to Michigan! Basically all we did was the Willis Tower. Which used to be the Sears tower. Again we spent WAYYYY more time waiting in line than actually being up in the tower. But it was nice to experience. On the way back to the hotel we simply picked up some Subway. The drive back was a bit more frustrating. We barely left the hotel and hit traffic RIGHT away. Thankfully Theo and I dealt with it by singing fun songs like Haddaway's "What is Love". We also had some fun good conversation. Both of the boys, of course, were passed out so it gave us some quiet time to chat. Overall, our trip was fun! It was a bit rough here and there. But every day got better because we learned how to navigate the city better. I'm glad we had the opportunity to travel and see things like this. Growing up, we didn't get to travel, so it's nice that we can experience it now with our little family! So in the end...should we Chica-GO or Chica-STAY?! I say GO! :)