Last Stop On The Chicago Train - Navy Pier

For the last stop on my Chicago recap posting, I thought I might share some photos and stories about our time spent at Navy Pier.

Navy Pier is basically a HUGE strip mall on the water, but significantly cooler than the average strip mall. It’s a cheesy tourist’s dream destination. It provides outdoor fun with a Ferris Wheel and play atrium for children as well as shops and vendors along the waterfront. Inside an IMAX theater, expansive indoor greenhouse and hundreds of shops and eateries offer hours of entertainment for people of any age.

Ethan, my little brother, was in heaven at this place! We went to NP in hopes of seeing Avatar in IMAX because Paxston missed the premier while in boot camp. Unfortunately, all shows were sold out so we decided to split up and spend a few hours shopping/sight seeing. As we walked through the stores Ethan became very excited when he saw the Build-A-Bear shop. The day before we had discussed that I was the only person in the family that didn’t have a Build-A-Bear – you can imagine how trouble this thought was for Ethan. So when he saw the store the conversation went a little something like this:

Ethan: AMBER!!! Build-A-Bear!!! Let’s go get you one!
Me: (Not wanting to spend the money on a bear when I could buy so many cool “Chicago” souvenirs) Aww..how sweet buddy, but I don’t think I need a teddy bear. Dixie and Bauer would want to play with it.
Ethan: But you need one to love you.
Me: I have Dixie and Bauer buddy – they love me lots.
Ethan: You need something that doesn’t lick so much….
Me: But I really don’t need to spend the money buddy.
Ethan: Oh don’t worry! Mommy will buy it for you.

Trying to avoid going into Build-A-Bear mom and I convinced Ethan to venture out into the cold and take advantage of the beautiful photo opportunities along the water. At first Ethan was not too thrilled with the idea, but after one or two pictures he became a total camera hog. He kept saying “Ooohhh…look mom! Take a picture of me doing this!” SNAP “Wouldn’t it be so cool if you took a picture of me on this??” SNAP He was worse than a girl at prom. But I must say – we got some pretty cute pictures!

As is common with six-year-old boys, Ethan became bored with taking pictures after about 20 minutes and started to run around. He would run about 5-10 feet in front of mom and I while we were walking and I was scared he would get lost in the crowd. Everytime I called his name, he would run faster. When I finally caught up to him I chastised, “Ethan Douglas! If you don’t stop running away from us I am going to take of my belt and spank you right here in front of everyone. And then they are going to take me to jail for spanking you. Do you want me to go to jail?? Do you??” (I know..judge all you want….but I was at my wits end!!!) Of course this didn’t sit too well with Ethan and he became visibly upset. I softened my tone and tried again. “Listen buddy, I’m sorry for being ugly. It’s just I will be very sad if something happens to you because you are running away from us. I’m going to be nice to you and you be nice to me – stay with me and mom, okay??” By this point mom had caught up to us and Ethan looked at her and said, “Mommy – can we go to Build-A-Bear because I love Amber and I forgive her.” (Oh yeah – that kid is GOOD!)

At that point there was really no escaping it…he drug us to Build-A-Bear and made a bear for me. It was so cute to watch him pick out my bear’s heart and help make him big and strong. He made sure to give him a really good bath and warned me not to let Dixie or Bauer *anywhere* near my bear! I picked out a “Navy Pier” t-shirt for my bear and Ethan and I decided to name him “Chicago”. Ethan even made a birth certificate on the computer for me with Chicago’s name and my information. I was very impressed with how well he did! I would strongly recommend Build-A-Bear to anyone with small children. It’s a great experience and the kids just eat it up. Even I wanted to do it again!

Ethan giving Chicago a bath

Ethan, Chicago & I

After we finished at Build-A-Bear we met up with the rest of the family and took some more photos outside. 

Pretty Mommy

Me & Pax being weird

That's much better

All in all, it was a great vacation. As always, it was far too short and I left wishing I could have done more. My time with my family was much needed and I’m looking forward to visiting Paxston again. Next time I will make sure to bring hubby along so he can share in the fun.

I Heart Chicago

Let me begin by saying I have not visited many large cities. I currently live near Charlotte and lived in the Dallas/Fort Worth area when I was younger. I traveled to Hong Kong and Washington, DC during my junior year of college. I spent a quick afternoon in Baltimore for an Orioles game while visiting a college friend. I have also driven through/visited Atlanta numerous times on my trips home to Alabama – and that sums up my almost 25 years of experience with large metropolises.

With that in mind, I hope you can understand why I am absolutely smitten with Chicago and that you will not mock me too much as I express my utter fascination with “city life”.

Our hotel was in Waukegan, IL so we could be close to Paxston’s base. As I said previously, we spent Friday in the Great Lakes area for Paxston’s graduation and waiting for him to receive liberty so he could spend time with us. The goal for Saturday was to spend the entire day in Chicago sight seeing and finding the best pizza in town.

After consulting numerous taxi drivers and the concierge, we determine the best way to get to downtown Chicago would be by train. We agreed to take the 9am train into the city so we would have a full day for sightseeing. On Saturday morning, we found ourselves in need of transportation to the train station. (Remember – had a 5 person sedan and 7 people needing transportation!) It was only about a mile drive so instead of taking a taxi, we opted to just cram into the Infiniti and drive. There we were - mom and dad sat comfortably in the spacious front compartment while Paxston, Crickette, Ethan, Jordan and I crammed into the itty bitty back seat. Jordan sat in Paxston’s lap and Ethan sat across Crickette and me. It didn’t help matters any that we were running behind and were afraid we were going to miss the train. Needless to say, by the time we reached the train station, we were all slightly on edge and just ready to get the show on the road. (Again – we are from the South – worrying about train schedules isn’t exactly something we were accustomed to!) (And yes – I use a capital “S” for “South” because it is a place…it’s my home…it deserves capitalization.)

I was mesmerized by the small towns as we rode the train. I called Steven and said, “OMG – this place looks just like Scranton on The Office!” It really did – old style neighborhoods with dated architecture. Hundreds of older, tightly spaced row homes sprawled as far as I could see. Plants and factories were spread haphazardly with smoke and fumes billowing into the sky. Honestly – I haven’t seen anything like it. There aren’t many old school communities like this in the South. We have country areas with older homes or new construction areas where most homes are less than twenty years old. Yes, many towns have “historic districts” with refurbished shop fronts – but these are meant to give the town a sense of heritage, of past. I’m not exactly sure how to describe the differences, but it was just incredibly different.

If I was impressed with the small towns from the window of the train, I was blown away by the city of Chicago. It is a perfect blend of beautifully preserved historic architecture and newly built modern buildings. Gorgeous churches and cathedrals stand amidst throngs of skyscrapers as if the city were meant to be a tribute to the past and present simultaneously. I swear I could walk around for hours taking in the architecture and monuments. I love the fact that it’s a city on the water – the lake adds an element of natural beauty that only amplifies Chicago’s charm.

Total tourists in front of "God Bless America"

Views from Michigan Avenue

We took a taxi to Michigan Avenue and did some shopping. We walked a few blocks to a highly recommended pizza parlor – Giordano's. Oh wow – never having experienced Chicago style pizza – this was a huge treat. The pizza slices are HUGE and the cheese is so gooey…yum! *YUM!!*

I would highly suggest vacationing in Chicago. Thankfully, Paxston is posted there for at least another year. Hubby and I would like to make a visit during the summer. See a Cubs game and spend an evening at Navy Pier. One day just wasn’t enough – there are so many attractions that we didn’t get to see and I’m really looking forward to going back!!

Never A Dull Moment

This post is much overdue, but I want to share a little about my experience in Chicago at the end of January. There is so much to tell that I’m going to spread it over the next couple of posts so it is a little less overwhelming.

My parents, Crickette (sister), Ethan (brother) and Jordan (P’s girlfriend) all drove to Waukegan Wednesday/Thursday. The plan was for them to check-in to the hotel around 3 Thursday afternoon and my father would pick me up from the O’Hare airport Thursday night. Mom and dad thought it would be perfectly fine to drive the Infiniti on the trip. Yes – a four door sedan with seating for only 5 people. Why my parents thought seating for 5 people would be adequate when they have a family of 7 to shuffle around for the weekend remains a mystery to us all. Unfortunately, they were running a little behind schedule and the entire family picked me up from the airport Thursday evening. Imagine my surprise when I reached the car and realized we all had to cram in for the 45 minute drive to Waukegan. Ethan literally laid across Jordan, Crickette and my lap in the back seat. We put covers over his body and had to keep telling him to keep his head down. The only positive to be said about taking the Infiniti would be that it provided GPS navigation – which you can imagine would come in very handy for Southern suburbanites trying to maneuver their way through a foreign metropolis.

Mom, in all her wisdom (being serious here), prerecorded the address to O’Hare airport and the hotel in Waukegan so we could easily get to and from the airport and hotel. So as we exited the airport parking lot, mom selected our next destination and the GPS lady plotted our course and began giving dad directions.

We had been driving for about 5-10 minutes when the GPS started indicating that we needed to make a U-turn. The GPS screen showed that we needed to turn around and go the direction we came from. Immediately we all accused Dad of missing his exit (he would NOT get off his blackberry and kept texting/calling people so we just assumed he wasn’t paying attention.) Dad made the requested U-turn and headed back the way we came. Strangely enough, the GPS indicated we need to make another U-turn and head back north. At this point the car was total chaos. Dad insisted he hadn’t missed a turn, mom insisted he get off his blackberry and I kept hearing the strangest thudding noise coming from the passenger side of the car. My heart immediately sank and I thought, “Lord please – please do not let us have a flat tire. We are not exactly city equipped for this type of breakdown right now.” I asked if anyone else heard the noise and no one other than Crickette did (which isn’t surprising considering how loud everyone was!) As the car came to a halt at a stop light, I opened my car door to see that my mother had closed her coat in the door and her flap was banging against the car door. REALLY!?!?! It wasn’t bad enough that we were crammed in the car driving around Chicago like the Beverly Hillbilly’s in a slightly nicer car – but mom had her coat flapping in the wind for all to see. Thankfully in the midst of our stress and hysteria we found this comical - not embarrassing.

As Dad continued to follow the GPS instructions, we were forced to do another U-turn and head back south. I honestly thought I was going to watch my father’s head burst right off his neck when it dawned on me. “Where is the GPS taking us?” “What?” mom replied. “Where is the GPS set to take us? What address did you select?” I could see the look of sheer mortification come across my mother’s face as she realized she had set the GPS to take us to the airport – not the hotel. The stupid thing had been looping us around the airport for nearly 15 minutes! My dad did *not* try to hide his satisfaction in being proven right. Amazing, we can finally go to the hotel – I thought.

Oh – and don’t let me forget to tell you about the best part (insert sarcasm)! As I mentioned, Ethan was sprawled across our laps, face down, in the backseat. What I did not mention is that he entertained himself by farting the entire ride. Oh yeah, that little six-year-old thought it was hysterical to let one lose on us. Thankfully his bottom was pointed directly at Crickette, not me – but it was still pretty bad. Every time he would laugh at himself, he would let another one go. We were too busy laughing/choking to scold him and this pretty much continued until we reached the hotel.

The thing is, this is kind of how it always is with my family. Always chaotic but always entertaining. Thankfully we have just learned to laugh our way through it and enjoy ourselves even when were packed into a tiny car filled with little boy farts and the GPS lady screaming at us to “TURN AROUND!” There really never is a dull moment when you’re with the Gulledge’s.

Honest Scrap Award

Yay!! Ashley over at Raising Brats passed a blog award onto me - even though I've stunk the past week or so!  Thanks so much lady.  :)

"The Honest Scrap award comes with a caveat or two. First, you have to tell your readers ten things about you they may not know, but that are true. Second, you have to tag 10 people with the award. Third, let all the people you've given the award to know that they've gotten it (comment on their blogs or something). And finally, make sure you link back to the person who awarded you."

I feel like I have already told so much about myself, but lets see if I can come up with 10 more fun facts:

• If I could afford it, I would have four children and probably want to start having them now; however, logic and finances will probably require that I wait 2-3 years and only have 2.
• I'm a new addict of The Office - it's hysterical.  I'm waiting for Season 6 to come out on DVD so I can see what happens!
• My biggest fear is that Steven might die - just the thought of life without him can send my into hysterics and panic.
• I don't keep in touch with many people from high school.  I think my crowd of girls were more "frenemies" than actually friends.  Sometimes people are in your life for only a season....
• Pink is my favorite color - by far - love it.
• I'm a junk food addict. I love chips and candy and really struggle to keep my diet in check.  Boo...
• I'm an advisor for my sorority.  I really love working with them and giving them advice - I'm 3 years out of college but still truly enjoy being a more "mature" part of the organization.
• Super Mario Brothers for the Wii is my new favorite video game - it's SO much fun! I feel like a kid playing it.
• I'm kind of getting over Facebook - gasp, I know - but I'm just kind of over it.
• I just got a Droid Eris and am fascinated by it.  I've never had internet on my phone.  It's crazy!  I can get emails on my phone.  Watch out!!!

So now I would like to pass this award along to some of my new favorite bloggers.  You should really check them out for some great reads!
Tammy at She Talks to Angels
Miss Kriss at Miss Kriss
Chelsey at Chelsey's Moss Moments
Classy In Philadelphia
Ashley at Pink-Ture Perfect
Brittany at XOXO, Brittany
Tara at t in my life
Short Southern Mama

Hope you all are having a great Tuesday!!  :)