Chicago May 2-4

This past May we took the boys on their first airplane ride with us to Chicago. Robert had his final test to be officially Emergency Medicine Board Certified. Robert studied for a total of about 30 minutes for the test. He had already gone to e review course the month before and felt very confident in the test. We were a little worried about getting there, because this was during the times of the bad wind and hail storms. In fact when we arrived at 10am for our flight, the others from the flight before us were busy rescheduling flights for 9pm or later. All the other morning flights out had been canceled. Our flight was still delayed an hour, but thankfully we were able to make it in Sunday afternoon with very little stress.
One of Jon's friends is originally from Chicago and gave us a list of all the best places to eat and see. the first night there we walked across the street for dinner at Gino's Pizza. We had our first real Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. What we didn't know is that it took almost an hour to cook. Robert loved it. I thought the dough tasted like cornbread and less like pizza crust.
Monday was Robert's test day and the boys and I just hung out and swam in the indoor pool. Something you should know about Robert is that he loves to procrastinate and for about a month I have been working on ggetting him to try on his suit and make sure everything fits. Lets just say that he never did try anything on and I packed things as is. When he was getting dressed to head off to his test the neck on his shirt was soo tight he couldn't get it buttoned. He just put the tie on and cinched it up high enough to cover up the loose button. We had a good laugh about it. Then he went to put on his belt, and the belt I packed was almost too small as well. He was a trooper and wore the suit with class even if it was a little too small. In his defense he hasn't worn a suit since interviewing for Residency 4 years ago. People grow in that amount of time.
Tuesday was fun day. We took the boys to the Shedd Aquarium. We used public transportation and had to ride the subway and bus system. That was quite an adventure. The Shedd was a lot of fun. It was like having a little piece of Sea World trapped indoors. I was glad that all the exhibits were inside, because even though it was May the temperatures only made it to the low 60's. We were cold. Here are some of the things we saw :

This was the Beluga Whale and Dolphin Show

It was the best part of the visit.

They showed us how they train the animals to do their tricks

WE were admiring this funny little guy, and a little old lady walked up and talked to us and said that she doesn't like hearing people call him ugly. She thinks all God's creatures are beautiful and unique

They happened to have a Jelly Fish exhibit while we were there. They had some that were so tiny you had to look hard to find them.

The boys were looking at the seals from up above

Jon at the gift shop checking everything out.

This is out in front of the Shed as we were leaving. There was a beautiful park that we walked through to get to the bus to head over to the Navy Pier. On the way we walked by the Field Museum

This is a statue out in front of the Field Museum

In the park with Navy Pier in the background

The big Ferris Wheel we rode on. They never even stop it for you to get on. You just hop on it while it is in motion. It moves so slowly there was plenty of time.

I think Luke is the only one who enjoyed his ride. It would not have been so bad if it moved a little faster. You had plenty of time up there to think and wonder why you would get on such a thing so high up in the air.

Luke enjoying his ride.

The last day was supposed to consist of us heading back downtown to the Willis Tower (Sears Tower), but everyone had seen enough heights. We decided to head out of town to the movies and see RIO. I think it was a good decision. Everyone had a good time. Then we headed out to the airport straight from the movie. We had fun and I don't think our family is quite finished touring Chicago.