Saturday, August 2, 2008

The Windy City

When we decided to move to Michigan (just outside of Detroit), we had an interest in what our new surroundings would be. We were excited in how (relatively) closely located we would be to Chicago. Macy had been asking for an American Girl doll for some time, and we were trying to make our move to Michigan something she would look forward to, so we told Macy that soon after moving to Michigan we would go to Chicago and let her get her American Girl doll.

Day 1
We arrived in Chicago in the mid morning and were greeted by the cool skyline.

After we parked, the first stop was the American Girl store (located at Michigan and Chicago Avenues). Macy was very excited. Bailey picked up on the hype and began saying, "Me buy Bitty Baby too." We attempted to explain to her that we would come back for Bailey's trip when she gets a little older.

After much study, Macy decided that she wanted to get Mia, the 2008 doll of the year.

Bailey had fun looking at the Bitty Baby stuff. With everything she saw and played with, she would say, "Buy it." :) She gave the sweetest hugs to every available Bitty Baby and enjoyed playing with the displays.

Of course, Macy enjoyed looking, too.

After a lot of looking, buying, and crowd dodging, we sat down for a while to rest and open some of our goodies.

It was during the rest, that we realized that had more babies than we thought. (Bailey did this first, then we had to get everyone else to do it).

Macy and I, then, took Mia around the store and let her visit with her doll friends.

We had dinner reservations, but thought we might try to walk in for lunch. We added our names to the list and killed a bit more time hoping we could get in. Good news! We got seated for lunch.

Daddy had chicken and apples.

Macy had pizza.

Bailey had a baby picnic.

Mommy had a chicken sandwich.

During lunch, the girls played with their dolls. Macy was nice and loaned her Bitty to Bailey for the trip.

We captured Macy's thoughts on this video.



After lunch and a very busy first half of the day, we left the American Girl store (feeling very satisfied) and went to our hotel.

Julie loved the room; Macy was scared of how high up we were; Bailey looked out of the window and said, "look castles."

After some rest, we went out to some other shops.

This was the girls first cab ride.

Where was the taxi taking us? The Disney Store, of course.

After the Disney Store, we walked around and enjoyed some other shops. Macy always gets a kick out of seeing this store. :)

We ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, dessert at the Hershey's shop, and returned to our hotel to end day 1.

Day 2
After sleeping in and eating breakfast at the hotel, we checked out of our castle (as Bailey called it) and went to Navy Pier. Macy and Mia were dressed for the day. :)

There were some carnival-type rides that the kids enjoyed.


The granddaddy of all the rides was this 15-story ferris wheel.

We rode it, but we were a little freaked out (except for Julie who claims she liked it).



After rides, we went indoors, ate a late lunch, laughed hard at some guy's old VHS video recorder, and headed home! We had a great trip. Of course, Julie's thinking about when we go back.


D

No comments: