Walking the streets, disguised as a tourist

I need to post this before I forget...and it may not fit into the correct date order for a while in this blog. I am reflecting back about all the walking we did in Chicago. (as my feet still hurt and won't let me forget). My family is not normally used to walking a lot. So, it was quite a culture shock for us to walk around so much. This was a good thing, don't get me wrong. I am not complaining...well....yes I am. You see, we walked more than normal tourists who visit and tour the city. Half the time we had no earthly idea where we were going, so we went blocks out of our way to find something. But what I remember most about these walking excursions, was the action itself. The first day, we started walking, we took up the whole sidewalk. In many parts, there is not much width to the side walk. So I kept pulling the kids over and telling them to walk single file, to the right. I was reminded of a funny video that a comedy club had produced in New York and it had floated around YouTube for a while. Members of the comedy team painted lines and arrows on the sidewalks and you walked down one side if you were a tourist and the other if you were a local. This kept the tourists from clogging up the side walks, taking pictures and or gawking. So, as I walked, I realized that I had to speed up if I was not going to be considered a total tourist nerd by the locals. I think back and realize I may have "drug" my kids along hurriedly, so we wouldn't lose our place on the side walk. I compare it to racing cars or horses. Once you jockey for your spot, there is no giving it up. The second reason to "rush" along is so you can make all the traffic lights and the little "white" hand telling you it's ok to cross. I was doing great. I had not lost my spot in the long line of walkers for several blocks. I had also prodded my family to make 3 of 4 traffic lights. We were walking...er...racing along to the 5th block, when it happened. There on the side of a building was a HUGE Red Charcoal grill, just jutting out of the corner of the building. It was the headquarters for Weber Grill Company. Oh my gosh. Would this be a cool picture to add to my vacation photo's? Would anyone else have this picture to brag about? Has anyone from Louisville EVER seen a HUGE Red Charcoal grill glued to the side of a building? No! Our special effects in Louisville only include a large balloon looking thing that has stringy arms and legs and it sits in front of Valvoline Oil Centers. It's so not ON the building, just in front. We sometimes have scary looking Liberty Statues that appear on the side of the road, during tax season. But no Weber Charcoal grills. So my dilemna was whether I should stop to take the picture and risk losing my 4th place spot in the long line of people walking the side walks. Would it be worth it? Could I get the picture quickly and gain my place back near the front? I had to strategically plan how I could get the picture, make sure it was not blurry AND keep my spot. I saw the light change up ahead and noticed it was our turn to cross the street. I steadied my camera. I pointed it towards the grill. I walked closer, and closer. I noticed a young business guy in my peripheral vision on the right, getting ready to pounce on my spot. He didn't have kids nor a 30 pound camera case, with 3 zoom lenses. He could take me. As I got closer and closer, I had a plan. It would work, I was sure. The business guy was right on my tail. As I raised my camera to get the picture, still walking, and as he stepped his foot to take over my spot, I yelled over to my daughter Kennady that her shoe was untied and that she needed to tie it before she tripped and fell. Ha haha.....Mr. Big Shot Business guy. You are no match for tourist lady. I am a pro when it comes to pictures. I got my picture, he was held up for a few seconds by my daughter, and we both missed the traffic light. But in years to come, I will always have a fond memory of that HUGE Red Weber Charcoal grill picture, when I show the family my slide shows.

Shedd Aquarium

Before we went into the Aquarium, we bought the kids hot dogs from a street vendor. Wanted them to taste Chicago style hot dogs. Although they were good, not so sure I could not whip up the same ones here in Louisville, in my kitchen. What IS the definition of a real Chicago style hot dog?

The Aquarium was a rather uneventful day. It was a huge building with huge tanks of fish, sharks, eels, etc. I have yet to see an aquarium house an Octopus. What's up with that? The one cool thing that we did get to experience was 4D. The newest trend in movies is 4D. It's basically watching a 3D movie, but with some added special, real life effects. We went in to see some clips from Earth Day. It started out like a normal 3D movie. Polar Bears seeming to plunge towards us, a sharks nose that I thought was right above my head. But the first treat came when the Polar Bear caused a small avalanche when he was sliding down a snow covered hill. As the snow fell down the mountain, my seat rumbled, and made me feel like I was falling with the snow. The 2nd thrill came when the movie was talking about sharks and they were explained how they had to harpoon a shark. As the harpoon lunged towards the shark, something came out of the back of my seat and poked me! Harpooned me!! Yikes! Then just seconds later, as the shark dove in the water, droplets of water came splashing in my face. This was the coolest thing that I had ever experienced. If all 4D movies are made to include these effects and more, I will definitely pay to go see them. Spent most of the day in the Aquarium. We actually closed it down at 5:00 (they asked us to leave).

Left the Aquarium, took some cool pictures with Lake Michigan and the sail boats in the back ground. I got my picture fix for a few hours. We walked down by the lake and got some gatorade and ice cream from another street vendor. Sat for a few minutes and the trotted back up to catch the bus back to the hotel.

So this excursion included walking 5 blocks to catch the bus, (after the 20 block walk to American Girl), a few miles to and from Soldier Stadium to explore, another mile to the Aquarium, several miles inside the Aquarium, a block or two down by the lake, and then about a mile back to the bus stop. Once we got off the bus, we walked about 5 blocks back to the hotel. See where I'm going here? My feet were ready to leave town. (but not me)