Well, we finally got on the road....and we were only 2 1/2 hours past our intended start time. That is a new record for us! I had to pack everyone's things today AND pack the van. I am proud to say that I was able to get everything to fit in the back end, with room to spare. That is another new record. We took our pet Beagle, Farley, to my mother-in-law so she could watch him for us. Upon leaving her house, I asked everyone if they had their tennis shoes (all 3 kids had on their sliders/sandals.) My oldest let out a huge but muffled sound. I said "I guess you forgot yours, huh?" So we had to turn around and take another 30 minutes to go back home and retrieve one pair of size 13 tennis shoes, to be used for walking the streets of Chicago. With shoes on board, we drove for 2 1/2 hours. We are spending the night in Lafayette Indiana. I can't wait for the free Continental breakfast, as I had no supper. We will start fresh in the morning. Oh yeah. Remember that "room to spare"? It was taken up by the size 13 tennis shoes. Until tomorrow......

We will soon embark on our next vacation. This one, like all others, did not start without much stress. We were not sure we were going on vacation. Then we decided at the last minutes to take one. Our choices in the beginning were Florida. But then the BP Oil spill had to ruin our choice of visiting the Gulf again. So we researched the beaches of North Carolina and South Carolina. Because we had limited time to take for vacation, we opted not to take that long drive to either of those spots (and there were next to none in hotels and condo's available). So we then chose Chicago. I heard it was a fun place to visit with a lot of things to do. We spent 4 days trying to narrow down a good hotel that was not overly expensive. We finally chose one late Saturday night, June 26. It's right in downtown Chicago, on the Magnificent Mile. We have to pay $28 a day to park! Wow. Looks like I am going to have to pack a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Hope you enjoy my blog during our travels.