Friday, January 18, 2008

Free, Fun, Chicago

I have this love-hate relationship with the city of Chicago. It is a beautiful city and there is so much to do, but getting there is not exactly something that one does for pleasure.

We had the awesome opportunity to adventure to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry yesterday while they were celebrating their 75 anniversary. It means that the month of January is FREE. woo hoo. Yes, I am a cheapskate. When you have two adults and two children you add up the price and it comes to 36.00 + 12.00 to park + food + gas + the hassle of Chicago traffic. FREE tickets are priceless. Check it out at www.msichicago.org .

I heard about it on Monday and my homeschool group was going to go on Tuesday. I wanted to go and asked my husband if he could take a day off and join us.. He did, but Tuesday would not work for him as he had a previous engagement at work, but he said Thursday would work better. He took Thursday off and I made some phone calls to some friends and there were a total of four families who went to the museum together. Since we knew the way, we were asked to lead the caravan trip, so we fought getting on the wrong interstate (we don't recall seeing the sign for the split between 290 and 355), fighting traffic both directions, and falling snow. Thankfully no one else noticed the interstate mix-up. I believe that overall, everyone had a great time.

My kids, being only 4 enjoyed some things better than many of the older kids, so we found things for all ages to enjoy. One of the other moms that went made all the kids a museum scavanger hunt where they got a sticker on the object on their book when they found a particular item. They seemed to really enjoy it.

My kids really liked to sit in the tractor, watch the baby chicks hatch, climb on the mini climbing wall, and look at the planes and trains.

The adults enjoyed the U-505 sub (a captured German submarine from WWII), the space section, and the old time town as well as many other attractions. There were a lot of exhibits closed due to renovations, but it was well worth every penny.

Bring on the Shedd Aquarium!!

2 comments:

Ann-Marie said...

Chicago rocks!!! I'm totally convinced it's the best big city in the world.

Not that I've been anywhere else, of course.

Glad you had fun!

Heidi said...

As I said in the post. I love the city itself, but getting there is a pain.