Chicago

Building with real tools at the DuPage Children's Museum


Adam, Ben and Uncle Rollie in Chicago

Lake Michigan

The Field Museum

Sue, the largest T. Rex skeleton in the world. It is the real thing except for the head which is in a separate exhibit upstairs.

Believe it or not, this is a Giant Ground Sloth.

The Water Taxi for Lake Michigan

View of the city from Lake Michigan

Travelling the Chicago River

View of the city from the river

View of the Sears Tower from the river. This is the tallest building in North America

We finally arrived in Naperville after 4000+ miles and 6 weeks of our Grand Adventure. Our first day we visited the DuPage Children's Museum in Naperville where the boys got to build using real tools (including a saw!) The adventure continued with a visit to Uncle Rollie in Chicago. As he has lived here close to 40 years, he was the perfect tour guide. We ended up taking public transportation because as we learned on our trip the journey is as much fun as the end point. We took a city bus, a train, a subway and our feet just to get to The Field Museum where there was an entire room of Dinosaurs. We got to go into a real Egyptian tomb and saw all sorts of mummies. We also visited the Pacific Islands in honor of Ben's love of all things Australian. There was a special Pirate exhibit, but we decided to save that for another day. We then took a water taxi on Lake Michigan to Navy Pier where we hopped on another water taxi for a trip on the Chicago River right through downtown. To top it all off, we took the Elevated Train and another bus to return to Uncle Rollie's. It was a great way to see the city which is going to take quite a bit of time to explore.

Spam and Wisconsin Dells

Trying to beat the clock while in the Spam production line

Ben riding across a tightrope at the Tommy Bartlett
Exploratory at the Wisconsin Dells

Look, no hands!!

Ben in a spacesuit as we got to go inside the actual Mir Space Station

As we drove through the Northern Plains States, it became a little more challenging to find places to stop. We visited the Information Center in Minnesota and they recommended the Spam Museum in the town of Austin. As they had a picture of Big Foot holding a can of Spam on the flyer, the boys decided they had to see it. While we did not find Big Foot, we did have a great experience at a totally interactive museum. Adam even tried the turkey Spam that was being served and said it was pretty good. The boys got to see how many cans of spam they could pack and cook and also found out what goes into making some of their favorite foods like bacon. There was even an exhibit where famous chefs showed how to make their favorite Spam recipes. To take a further step back in time, we stopped at a drive-in A & W that hooks the tray on the car window. We even got to meet the 90+ year old owner who came to chat after seeing our California license plate.

In Wisconsin, we spent the night in the Wisconsin Dells. I had always heard of the Dells but never knew what it was about. It is actually cliffs and rock formations that are cut out by the Wisconsin River. That being said, the true claim to fame is Noah's Ark the largest water park in the world coupled with 20+ other water parks and a million kid activities. I found out the best way to torture your kids is to take them to a place like the Dells and show them all the places you can't take them by yourself. There was no way I could take the boys to these huge water parks alone. We did, however, find a great hands on exploratory that even had one of the two original Mir Space Shuttles. The boys now want to visit Egypt, Australia, Hawaii and the Wisconsin Dells (with another adult!)