I am so far behind on my "backwards" posts that I will probably never catch up. This fact, combined with my pregnancy brain, will result in the next few posts simply existing outside of time, because I can't remember what day the events occurred! (Jeffrey is the king of remembering dates, but he's at work all the time now, so I'm on my own. Apologies.)
With that said, let me tell you about our family vacation. Once upon a time in the not so distant past, the Oglesby family and we went on vacation to Chicago, Illinois.
It took a while for us to get there because of a delay at the DFW airport that caused us to miss our connecting flight, but we arrived in Chicago only a few hours later than originally scheduled, and one rather long and smelly subway ride later, we arrived at our hotel on State Street.
The first night we walked down to Navy Pier and saw the city from the water. Beautiful!
After all that walking, we decided that we deserved a piece (or two) of deep dish Chicago-style pizza. We sent our delivery man (my dad) out to get it since the pizza place was only a block from the hotel. We were shocked to see him come back huffing and puffing to carry two medium pizzas one city block--those pizzas were so incredibly heavy! Chicago does not play around--when they say "deep dish" they mean DEEP DISH. If you see my dad now, about a month later, make sure to ask him if his arms are still sore from carrying those pizzas. He'll probably say yes.
The next morning we decided to see as many of the "must see" attractions as possible, which is a plan that works out well in Chicago because many of the museums are near each other. Unfortunately, our crew was feeling a little under the weather, so our walking was a little slower than it should have been. My sister was still trying to pass the kidney stone that was bothering her at Jeffrey's and my graduation, Jeffrey and Greg both had bad sinus infections, and I (of course) was pregnant and had a little stress fracture in my left foot. We were a sad bunch of tourists, but everybody toughed it out and walked the 2.5 miles to the museum area, stopping to admire a few of the huge buildings and other sights along the way.
![]() |
| We all needed neck massages after walking around in downtown Chicago--so many great buildings to admire! |
Our walk was totally worth it--we got to see the famous statue called Cloud Gate...
![]() |
| Look, Carter went to Cloud Gate! |
Millennium Park...
The Art Museum...
![]() |
| Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? |
The Aquarium...
![]() |
| The special exhibit at the aquarium was a jellyfish exhibit. Doesn't this look like a screensaver? |
And the Field Museum, all in one day! (No pictures from the Field Museum...it was the last one and I was just too tired to take any pictures. Lame.)
Random funny story from the day: We stopped to eat lunch in Subway, and my poor sister (still trying to pass her kidney stone) needed to use the restroom. She walked directly back to the restroom of the tiny restaurant and noticed that the men's was closed, and when she knocked on the women's door a man's voice said, "Occupied." She came back to order her sandwich, then went back to wait at the door of the restroom. Then she waited, and waited, and waited. In fact, she waited while the rest of us ordered and ate our sandwiches. Finally, after 20 minutes of waiting, she told the manager of the restaurant what was going on. He knocked on the door and politely but firmly told the man there were other customers waiting to use the bathroom. The man said he would hurry (although all of us were starting to wonder if Leslie would want to *ahem* follow that act), but was still in there 5 minutes later when a group of twenty-somethings came in. One of the girls came back to use the bathroom and Leslie told her what was going on. The girl immediately took care of the problem, in true Chicago style:
BANG! BANG! BANG! She pounded on the door, then yelled, "Hey! Other people are waiting here so you can just take your poop somewhere else!"
If I had been in there, I would have stayed inside dying of embarrassment, but the man finally came out and made a quick exit while the girl glared at him. Crisis averted.
The next day we visited the Museum of Science and Industry...
![]() |
| Jeffrey loved seeing the captured German submarine from WWII. I mean, Captain Jeffrey. |
![]() |
| Dad reenacted a scene from his childhood: When this moon rock was originally brought to the museum, my dad was a young boy visiting Chicago. A photographer snapped his photo looking at the moon rock and published it in the papers. Reliving his glory days here! |
and the Sears Tower.
![]() |
| The view from the top. Jeffrey and Courtney were brave enough to walk out onto the plexiglass outcropping...I was not! |
We also watched a Cirque du Soleil show down on the Pier. I had approximately 19 heart attacks watching tiny little girls stacking on top of each other and balancing on chairs--I kept thinking I was going to have to go on stage to give CPR to one of those poor little things if they fell! Honestly, it was an incredible show--the kids are so talented who do it, but I will NEVER let my boy Carter try such dangerous stunts!
That night we ate at a grill nearby the hotel. The night wasn't really going well because our waiter was far more concerned with another table than making sure we had frivolities, like water, but the evening was saved by a very unusual event--a naked bike ride/protest.
Apparently the hundreds of riders in the buff were protesting for gay rights (seems like they should have been protesting clothes, right?), and the funniest part was that tons of them were wearing backpacks! No shoes, no shirts, no underwear, no shoes...but backpacks. I guess they brought bail money in case they got caught by the police.
Umm...I didn't take any pictures of this sight either...sorry.
The next day we did a little bit of shopping before heading back to the airport to go home. It was a great trip in a great city.
