I think that taking a trip as a family gives you a very good picture of how your family works together as a team. We’ve just arrived back after four days in Chicago and I’ve kind of been thinking about that ever since. Every person seems to have a different response to being in a strange place. Max gets (really) excited, Zoe gets nervous, Joe takes control and I start looking for bathrooms. Seriously, where are all the damn bathrooms in Chicago???
We arrived at the hotel on Sunday and the kids immediately wanted to go swimming at the hotel pool. Joe and I, of course, were ready to go explore the city and find great food. Joe and I won. Before we left home Joe got this new App on his Iphone which was super cool. You can punch in where you want to go and it will give you walking, driving and bus directions to get there. He was all over it. He’d figure out where we were headed and then he’d find the nearest bus to take us there. To be fair, it wasn’t always entirely accurate which prompted some pretty vocal complaints from the kids, of course. (Surely you didn’t think I was doing any complaining…) Still, it got us where we needed to go most times so that was good.
Max loved the bus system. He loved to stand up and hold onto the straps above for balance – even when there was a seat available. Mostly he just hung on them like a monkey at the zoo. His favorite part, I think, was the time we let him sit in the back of the bus. There were a bunch of “20 somethings” back there and the language was pretty darn colorful. He LOVED it.
Zoe and I made it to the American Girl doll store. Ugh. The women in there are CRAZY. You’d see a mom completely decked out in heels, full make-up, perfect outfit and perfect hair marching along in front of her daughters who looked like little “mini-me’s”. Some of the mom’s seemed more excited to be there than their kids. Weird. I overheard a couple that was riding behind me on the escalator.
Husband: “That’s it. I’ve already spent over a thousand dollars in here and I’m not spending a penny more. We need to leave now.”
Wife: “Honey, it’s not like we come here every day. Gracie has been so excited about this trip because of this store. Let’s just finish shopping on the lower level and then we’ll go.”
To my astonishment, he agreed. Meanwhile I was trying to pry a pair of $22 slippers out of Zoe's clinging hands. I ended up spending $40 and I felt THAT was excessive!
This is not to say that the trip was without it’s trials. On our final day, we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo. The issue started right inside the gate. Joe wanted to get his hands on a map right away. I thought we could just wander around and look at stuff. (“Look kids – seals!”) He was adamant and we began our march towards the gift shop (though I did stop and look at the seals…). I was being a bit of a smart *ss because it was the end of the trip and I wanted to do things my way. Within earshot of Joe (and in a very childish way) I started saying to Max, “Well, some people believe that life is all about the destination. Myself, well, I think the journey is far more important.”
Joe, overhearing this, shot back “That’s cool as long as you don’t mind arriving at the destination without all your stuff.” A blatant reference to the fact that I had misplaced (more likely thrown away) all of our cell phone and Ipod chargers somewhere between the train and the hotel.
Well. That turned the worm for sure. By the time we arrived at the penguin exhibit, we were not speaking. At one point I said to the kids, “Look at that cute penguin over there! I think he’s going to jump in the water!” When they went to investigate I turned to Joe and said, through clenched teeth, “You’d better just knock it off. Do you honestly think that I don’t feel bad enough about the stupid chargers without you rubbing it in?” I was able to get the smile plastered back on my face just as the kids arrived. To Joe’s credit, he apologized to me in the botanical garden house a little bit later.
All in all another great trip to Chicago with lots of fun memories.
