Chicago (Part II)

Here we go again:

Thursday May 8th, 2008
Thursday was a good day. We spent the morning walking along the "Magnificent Mile" along Michigan Avenue. It is the heart of the shopping district for the north side of the city. There are 3 malls and a ton of stores (most of them far too expensive for us to even step in) and a bunch of restaurants. We walked from there to a train station that we took to go to a White Sox game at US Cellular Field (See this post about the baseball game). Here are some pictures of the buildings that we passed:

The new Chicago Trump Tower:

Marina City (recognize them from this Allstate Insurance commercial? Check out the link, it's pretty cool):

Chicago Water Tower:

Luckily we didn't have to pay for parking:

In the Marstons' apartment building there was a good sized grocery store, gym, pool and play room. I took Ada down to play in the play room a bunch of times and she just loved it. It was a lot like an oversized nursery (and we had it all to ourselves every time that we went down there). You can see Ada playing in the back in this picture.

Friday May 9th, 2008
Today we took a bus to the Lincoln Park Zoo. This zoo is totally free and fairly big (It puts Hogle to shame). On the day that we were there it was packed. On the south end of the zoo is a little Farm Zoo where you can pet some of the farm animals. Ada liked the cows and the goats (see the pictures).


We saw so many animals that Ada was just plumb tuckered out by the time we got our lunch ordered and were walking home.


Saturday May 10th, 2008
We spent Saturday morning visiting Millennium Park and all of the public art installations. We walked over the only Frank Gehry designed bridge in the world:

visited the Cloud Gate:

walked through Crown Fountain

and visited Buckingham Fountain.


We finished the morning by eating at Cosi (first introduced to us by Ben and Jenn in Boston) and then walking back to the apartment.

After Ada's nap we all went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the food (because it was my first Thai restaurant). Luckily we took a cab home because on the cab ride we noticed that Ada had a blowout. Easily the worst diaper/mess of her life. It was a two person/10+ wipe/bathtub job.

Sunday March 11, 2008
On Sunday we went to church once again with the Marstons. Ada wasn't very good during sacrament either week but we still enjoyed all of the meetings. We had planned on going to see the temple that day but it was pouring rain. The meteorologists forecast that up to 1.5 inches of rain would fall. We never saw what the final totals were.

We left Monday morning for Nauvoo (which deserves its own post) and it was sad to say goodbye to Hyrum and Angie. They were the most gracious hosts and we had such a good time staying with them. Ada took such a liking to both of them she was always worried where Hyrum or Angie had gone. We owe them big time...

**Update: How could I forget to mention that Jaycee Carroll showed up in their ward on Sunday. I sat next to him in Elder's Quorum and he told me that his agent is in Chicago and he's there going through a pre-draft workout to get ready. He's working out with Brandon Rush from Kansas, a guard from Notre Dame and a 20-year-old from Australia. I'd love to see him get drafted.