Welcome to Wanderer Wednesday! This week Becca from R We There Yet Mom shares about one my favorite cities! We’re planning a family trip to Chicago in the fall and I can’t wait to try out some of Becca’s great suggestions!
Would you like to share your wanderings? I would love to hear about your favorite trips, whether they be right in your own backyard or around the world. Contact me at jessica <at> suitcasesandsippycups <dot> com.
Hi, my name is Becca, from R We There Yet Mom? I feature travel trips, tips, and great ideas from the expert family travelers – YOU! Jessica kindly asked if she could feature me and I knew the perfect trip to tell y’all about!
It’s My Kinda Town…..Chicago…..and from the moment we stepped off the train last summer, we “devoured” the city in a little less than 2 days! My museum-lovin’ 9 year old daughter, my adventure-seeking 7 year old son, and myself went up to Chicago for a quick 48 hours. My daughter wanted to see the dolphins & sea lions and the aquarium, my son wanted to go to the top of the Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower) and I just wanted to experience some amazing Chicago food – and we accomplished all three and MORE!
First up – a Chicago City Pass, which gave us VIP access to all the destinations we wanted to see (Shedd Aquarium, The Field Museum, Skydeck Chicago, Adler Planetarium & more!)
The Shedd Aquarium, which is a part of the Chicago Museum Campus, is an amazing indoor aquarium sitting right on the edge of Lake Michigan. It features an amazing Amazon River exhibit, a colorful Caribbean Reef, and several interactive shows. Our most favorite show featured sea lions, dolphins, and a gorgeous Beluga Whale.
It was most definitely one of the best aquariums we have visited.
After a wonderful Chicago-stlye hot dog for lunch, we enjoyed another fantastic museum, The Field Museum, where we had the privilege of meeting Sue:
Sue is the largest, most extensive, and best preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil found in South Dakota in 1992 by paleontologist, Sue Hendrickson, as thus named after her. It is a pretty remarkable site to see in person – my son was fascinated with “her” and spent weeks telling every random stranger unique facts about Sue.
The Field Museum is another spectacular museum that features tons of displays and shows that encourage great questions from your kids!
You can hear more about our Chicago Museum experiences, include the Adler Planetarium, here.
My thrill seeking son was dying (no pun intended) to travel the 103-stories up to the Skydeck Chicago. Welcome to the view from the Sears Tower….ahem, I mean the Willis Tower. Did you know they renamed it a few years ago?? To me, it will always be the Sears Tower.
The Sears Tower was completed in 1974 and held the record for the world’s tallest building for 25 years. Now, it is still the tallest building the US and the 5th tallest in the world. But none of that mattered to these kids who were fascinated to see everything from such a height. They could have stood here forever!
The Skydeck features 3 glass boxes that visitors can walk out into and see Wacker Ave 1300 feet below – quite a thrill!
Hear more about our Sky-Deck experience here.
And lastly, this hungry momma wanted some good Chicago food. Luckily, I had my Chicago-style hot dog earlier in the day (and can I tell you, I can not eat a hot dog without dill relish anymore?) and a wonderful Rainbow Cone as an afternoon treat. What’s for dinner? Gino’s East Pizza!
You can’t go to Chicago without trying some original deep-dish pizza and Gino’s East was the place for it. With a line around the building to get in (we had a pass from our hotel concierge- score!), a 30 minute wait for the pizza to bake, and graffiti all over the walls, Gino’s East is in a class of it’s own. Read more about this ah-may-zing pizza and more great Chicago food here.
We had a fantastic time during our 48 hours in Chicago – I recommend it to families with kids of all ages!
That pizza looks AMAZING! I love deep dish pizza….