Post-Conference in Chicago

The kids said that a highlight of our trip was going to the top of the Wilson Tower (formerly the Sears Tower)

Upon our return home, Russell built this Wilson Tower for us.

The Navy Pier

Russell (center) and some random child.

Up on the ferris wheel of the Navy Pier

Superman and Dad in an Italian restaurant where we ate lunch.

Conference Days in Chicago

After J.T.'s conference began, I took our three wild ones (I mean kids) to the hotel's restaurant for dinner.

The following morning, we had the kids' first room service, loaded up our stroller, snapped this photo in front of our hotel, and took Michigan Avenue by storm.

Here is the view from Room 1714 in the Historic Tower (We had started off in room 1504 but it was on the Michigan Ave. side of the building and we had found it to be TOO NOISY).

We couldn't all agree about swimming in the hotel pool after lunch, but Lydia won out. We also carried out Chicago pizza and ate it here on our first evening in the hotel. Yum!

We played putt putt near Millennium Park with another nice family from the conference.

Russell was growing tired of photos as we had a dinner picnic of Subway sandwiches and a quick visit to the art museum. A nice family helped us get the stroller up the concrete steps and Lydia was awed by the jazz saxophonist on the street.

Our dear friends from UVa and the Triad have moved to Chicago. We met Lazetta and her daughter at the Chicago Children's Museum. We also had a great lunch at Bubba Gump's.

Sightseeing in Chicago

We were surprised to encounter this giant eyeball in the Loop of Chicago. We took the train south of town to Chicago's 14-acre Museum of Science and Industry.

We learned about this U-boat (above), the only one that was captured and preserved from WWII.

A highlight of our trip was spending time with Friends. The Faubs from Greensboro were in Chicago following a PCM conference and we toured 2 museums and walked under a funny modern sculpture - a silver bean - with them. :)

We took an architectural tour of Chicago with lake views from the "Tall Ship Windy."

Alas, the time came for J.T. to spend 2 days at his fee-only financial advisors conference in our hotel (shown above).

Chicago 2010 Visiting the Strands

We flew to Chicago from Raleigh on Southwest Airlines. This was Russell's first flight that he was old enough to remember. About 15 minutes into the flight, he leaned over and asked his Dad, "What will happen if we hit a cloud?"

It's rare for Russell to snuggle up to us so I just had to snap this photo on our late-morning drive from the airport to the Strands' house in Aurora, IL.

Our dear friends from our Baltimore days, the Strands, have relocated from suburban Naperville to a predominantly Hispanic area. Kirsten is the community outreach director for their church and Scott is a teacher at their local elementary school. He can walk to work. :)

Ross fit right back in with Erik and Brian.

We loved visiting their new, bilingual church campus in Aurora.

Our kids had asked to ride a train and they got their first chance to do that as we all rode in from Aurora to Chicago. The trip took about an hour and a half.

The Field Museum was interesting and impressive.