I'd been waiting for the first stretch of nice weather to sneak the kids out of school for a day of sightseeing in the city. Auntie Treecie's visit was perfect timing and we decided to make Friday into a long weekend for the kids. Paul had the day off too, and he and Ulia and Cam were going to meet us, then we'd all meet Marc for dinner. I'd bring Marc a change of clothes and then he could take Jack to a cub scouts event at the Museum of Science and Industry.
Perfect!!
Except you know what they say about the best laid plans...
First, I managed to forget the Museum tickets and change of clothes at home. I had to turn around for them halfway to the city.
My bad.
Then, due to some weird, "lake effect" weather pattern, while it was 80 degrees here in Naperville, it was 50 degrees on the Lakefront. And the 'nearby' restaurant turned out to be a mile or two walk, pushing a double stroller with 80lbs of kid in it. In flip flops.
Due to Molly's poor choice of footwear, she got blisters and refused to walk (or even wear shoes for that matter). Paul came down with full-blown dysentery and the Egan crew had to bow out, and then poor Patrice and Marc started feeling icky too.
So if you looked at it through a certain lens, the trip was a disaster!
BUT WE MADE IT!!!!
18 months living in Illinois and we finally went sightseeing!! The other stuff just adds drama to the story in my mind, I was just so thrilled to finally be downtown.
We enjoyed some "test batch" ice cream at Ben and Jerry's
I was giddy with anticipation when I saw that Schweddy Balls was on the menu! For the uninitiated, they are based on a Saturday Night Live skit from the nineties (back when I could stay up late enough to watch SNL, ha!). Here is a link to the skit, but the fun doesn't start until about 2 minutes in.
Those balls were mighty tasty Ben and Jerry's style! Then we began our trek to dinner at the Grand Lux, stopping on the way to chat with Bob Newhart.
The kids really liked Mr. Newhart, and jockeyed for a seat on his lap.
I don't think Molly intended to give him a lap dance...
But Ben definitely intended to give him a head massage!
We finally got to dinner, and faked having a great time very well.
Between Jack crying that he wanted a burger (but couldn't have one because it was a Friday in Lent) and Ben writhing in pain on the floor because he refused to poop for four days, and Molly whining about her aching feet, and Marc and Patrice being nauseous, and Jack and I being late to his cub scouts event....we still managed to pull off dinner by the skin of our teeth.
Barely!
1 comment:
I think your day in The City sounds exactly like our days in The City. Big plans, everything that could DOES go wrong, but it's the doing of it that must be done. Aren't pictures great that can mask the true story? Yours look great, and had I not read the narrative I never would have known otherwise. I hope everyone is feeling better now, and that Jack got that burger on Saturday! :)
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