Chicago

Where to start? A lot has happened in the last 6 days!

Well the flight was long, all up we flew for 22 hours, we only had 3 hours sleep the night before we left so we weren’t in great shape to handle so much flying.

On a positive note, for the 15 hour flight from Brisbane to LA we had a spare seat next to us so I curled up and went to sleep on Peter’s lap. Jet lag was really bad on this trip and by the third day, which was also day 1 of CHA, we were both a mess, struggling to stay awake in our classes and you will notice there are not many photos from Day 1 as we both looked like death warmed up! Day 4, second day of CHA, I think we had finally acclimatised to the massive time difference, and had an awesome time.

We spent our first 2 nights in Chicago City staying on Michigan Ave (the Golden Mile) which was a lot of fun shopping (we did not see Ophra, lol, apparently this is where she shops). We did lots of window shopping. If we liked the look of a shop, we would walk in and look at the price tags on the nearest rack, if it started with a $200+, we would walk back out :). We did find lots of bargains in Zara’s, Macys and the Apple Store.

The most amazing store we went into was the American Girl Doll shop, OMGoodness! This was most fascinating for both Peter and myself. These dolls had personality plus and everything to go with it. I will try and describe the shop for you, it was 2 stories full of American Girl accessories. Each doll can have matching clothes to its owner down to the finest details, they can have glasses, freckles, short hair, long hair, they have every piece of clothing available as a real person would.  On the second floor there was a hair salon, you can take your doll to have her hair done! Mums were lining up with their daughters waiting for a hairdresser to become available to do the dolls hair.

Next we went to the hospital, this is where ‘sick’ or damaged dolls go to get repaired, let’s say the dog chewed an arm or the doll’s mummy cut her hair too short, it can be replaced here at the hospital. Further along there was a pet store, because of course, your doll needs her own pet with its own accessories. The height of this experience was the restaurant, where you take you doll out for high tea. Little tables for little girls, with little high chairs that attach to the table for their dolls.

This store was every little girl’s dream and every child we saw in there was super excited, and it was a pleasure to watch.

We were blown away by the size of Lake Michigan, the great lakes are truly “GREAT!” Incredible, you can’t see the other side and it looks just like the sea when calm, apparently even having its own rip tides!

We walked down to  the Navy Pier which is one of the biggest tourist attractions of Chicago. It is a wharf on the edge of the lake with small cruise ships that cater for lunch and dinner while taking passengers out on the lake. Jet boats and site seeing ships were also in and out of dock. Among the restaurants and a museum, there are lots of pretty lights and side shows, the feature being a huge ferris wheel which we went on just before sunset. From the ferris wheel we had a good view of the city buildings, including the second tallest building in Chicago, being the John Hancock Building in which we had dinner on the 95^th floor.

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