Windy City - Day 1

This past weekend, we had the pleasure of spending a few days in the "Windy City" of Chicago with our friends Shana and Adam Cumberworth. Chuck had a meeting with the Board of Governors for the American Bar Association and the girls and I decided to tag along.

We have missed Adam and Shana so much since we all moved away from Baltimore a few years ago. They are like family to us and we see them just as much, if not more, than we see some of our own family. One day, hopefully, we will all live next door to each other again in the South. (hint, hint)
DAY 1After we flew in early Thursday morning, Chuck worked on some ABA stuff while Shana and I took the girls to a play group at a local park.


Later that night, Shana took us all to Navy Pier on Lake Michigan. This was the only day that we felt the need to wear our heavy coats. That night it was in the low 50s and the wind was coming off the water, so it felt kind of cold. The rest of the weekend, we were pleasantly surprised that it was unbelievably warm (upper 60s, low 70s) for the end of October in Chicago.

Chuck enjoyed playing in the water fountain. Leland thought the statue of the kids was cool and joined in the line. Be sure to click on the picture and see the zoom-in on her face. We all enjoyed seeing the really big lake.

Shana knows we like to find the deals for our vacations, so we hit up the Children's Museum at Navy Pier which is FREE on Thursday nights. The kids, including my really big kid of a husband, had a lot of fun. I love that my husband gets in there and plays so much just like he is a kid. It makes it so much fun for everyone.

This was my favorite thing in the Museum. It was a butterfly projector of some sort, but the butterflies would "land" on you. It was really neat.

Chuck received some AmEx gift cards from the ABA for increasing membership at his school. Traditionally, W&L averages 5-10% membership in the ABA, but after Chuck's appointment as Student Editor of Student Lawyer magazine and with some alumni encouragement, the school is trying to become more involved. Chuck is working really hard to increase membership. In the first two months of school, more than half of the first year class joined the ABA. Participation went from 6% to 22%. The ABA gives the gift cards as incentives for its ABA representatives.

We decided to use the ABA gift cards to eat out in Chicago as a special treat. We dined at Bubba Gump Shrimp the first night. I know this isn't a great "Chicago" place to go, but out of our options, seafood at Bubba Gump on the pier got us excited. The food was kinda pricey, but very yummy.

Our girls are pretty good in restaurants, so it makes eating out nice. We were trying to get Leland to say a prayer like she learned at preschool and Lucy waited ever so patiently. (Leland's learned a sing-song prayer at school and it is so cute to hear. We will try to get a video posted soon.)