Not-so Windy City - Day 2 (Halloween)

written by Chuck
DAY 2
Our second day in Chicago was Halloween. We started the day by heading to Lincoln Park Zoo, an awesome FREE zoo. Our family loves zoos and this one was lots of fun. All day long we commented on how many animals were active and visible in their enclosures.

When we lived in San Diego and had annual passes to the SD Zoo, we often heard the best time to go was in the morning. That is the time when the day animals are waking up and looking for food and exercising before it gets too hot. We figure the animals at Lincoln Park Zoo must have been so active because it was early, but also because it was the first warm day in Chicago in a while. It was amazing!

Among other things, we saw a pack of wolves hunting around together, three lions waking up, a black panther prowling around, a jaguar eating a white furry animal for breakfast, camels right up close to the people, over a dozen gorillas up next to the glass, a baby giraffe and mother, and the most entertaining polar bear ever. The polar bear thought he was a comedian, entertaining people by the underwater window in his enclosure. He was hilarious.


After the zoo, we went into town to eat at Ed Debevic's, a 50's diner where the wait staff act nonchalant and impatient, but funny. At one point, they all climbed on the counter and starting dancing. There used to be an Ed Debevic's in Hollywood, that my sisters and I went to a few times, but it closed down and the only ones left are in Illinois. Leland really enjoyed it. It was a fun time and good eating.


Lucy was asleep for the first half of lunch. Again, the poor girl gets deprived of her naps when we are out having fun. Our waiter was really funny. Leland doesn't get sarcasm, so it was funny hearing her respond to him. Adam was a good sport and danced in the aisles with Leland.

After lunch, I went to an ABA meeting for a few hours while the girls went home for naps. Later, Ashley brought the girls to meet my ABA friends before we got dressed to go out for Halloween. The girls went as sister witches (Leland = purple, Lucy = orange). While I was finishing up my meetings, Leland stayed with me and Lucy and Ashley took a walk by the river. Lucy is starting to "pose" for pictures with a big smile.

These are best pictures that we have that show the girls' costumes. It was so warm, Ashley didn't even have to put tights on the girls. We actually thought is might be "too hot" for them.


We went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood of Adam and Shana's bishop. It was a gated neighborhood with lots of townhouses close together full of families. It was perfect! The only drawback was that many of the front doors to the houses were on the second floor above the garages, so the kids had to climb the stairs. But the kids didn't mind and it even helped make the kids tire out more quickly.

I tried to help Lucy learn to carry her bag and hold it open, but as soon as the person would bend over, she would ditch her bag and reach out to help herself to some candy. Leland was a great trick-or-treater and did awesome.

Because it is a gated community, there were not many kids around, so people were giving out handfuls of candy, instead of just one or two. The girls only visited about 15 houses, but made out with tons of stuff. You know how you usually sort through your candy and throw out all the "cheap stuff". There was NO cheap stuff to throw out, just yummy chocolate. It was a fun night.

When it's time for breakfast and Leland and Lucy are both digging through their candy bags, you know we can't keep it in the house. We were lucky enough to leave a lot of it with Adam and Shana.

Be sure to read about Day 1 of our trip to Chicago.