Day 5 – Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Wednesday was our last full day in Chicago.  The plan at the beginning of the day was to go to the Shedd Aquarium and then Navy Pier that evening for fireworks.  We went to the Shedd Aquarium but it decided to pour rain about the time we were walking to Navy Pier so we hopped in a cab and skipped the fireworks.

Outside of the Shedd Aquarium, there was a hot dog stand so we ate our obligatory Chicago Style Hot Dog.  Well, I didn’t.  I had mustard & onions on mine.  A couple of girls with us did get the Chicago Style – mustard, ketchup, onions, peppers, pickle, relish, and probably something else that I can’t think of right now.  The birds were very interested in our food.

Wednesday evening we went to Gino’s East Pizza.  We tried Giordana’s Sunday, which is a stuffed pizza.  Gino’s is a deep dish pizza.  I loved Gino’s!  It is definitely the best pizza I’ve ever eaten.

Click here to view the photo album from Chicago.

Day 4 – Tuesday, July 6, 2010

The first location on Tuesday’s agenda was the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower.  The Willis Tower is the tallest building in the western hemisphere.  It was called the Sears Tower until a year ago.  I still want to call it the Sears Tower, mostly because that’s the most popular and recognized name of the tower.

A relatively new feature of the Willis Tower Skydeck is The Ledge.  One side of the building’s skydeck has 4 sets of plexiglas boxes protrude out from the building.  You can stand on the ledges and find yourself essentially standing over 103 floors of air.  I didn’t experience The Ledge.  My sisters & mom did, though.

After we left the Willis Tower, we took a taxi down to Chinatown.  I’ve never been to NYC or anywhere with a Chinatown so I had no idea what to expect.  The ones that had were pretty disappointed.  They expected some good deals but over half of the shops were groceries and/or restaurants.  All I know is that it was HOT.  Some of the shops we went into weren’t even air conditioned.

Click here to view my photo album from Chicago.

The plans for Monday revolved around 2 things – a 9:30 appt in the American Girl Cafe and an 11:15 appt at the Apple Genius Bar.

I didn’t take any pictures this day.  Crazy.  It just wasn’t really a sight seeing day.

We took a taxi down Michigan Ave to American Girl Place.  In case you don’t know what American Girl is, it is a line of children’s dolls, books, clothes, etc, etc.  In some cities across the US, there is a large store called American Girl Place.  It contains a doll hospital (to fix the dolls), a doll salon (to fix the dolls’ hair), and a cafe (to eat).  Shelby’s teacher brought her 5 year old daughter with us on the trip so this visit was all for her.  I must say the food was very good.  (Was it worth the money?  Not for me but I’m sure the 5 year old with us thought so.)  The cafe is covered in a slightly darker color of Pepto Bismol and black.  Part of the excitement of the cafe for children is that their American Girl dolls get to eat with them.  They have special chairs that attach to the table top and have a little tea set that is set in front of them.  I must say that that part is cute.

Why the Apple Genius Bar appointment?  Well, I bought the iPhone 4 the day it came out.  (Actually, I ordered the first date it was available.)  Ever since I got it, I’ve been getting a message saying “No SIM card installed” which is followed by a complete loss of service.  The temporary fix requires restarting the phone.  After getting a new SIM card at AT&T and talking to Apple support, I was told it was a hardware problem (that multiple owners are having…not just me) and that they would replace my phone.  The standard method for replacing an iPhone is to mail the phone to Apple & then they’ll mail the replacement back.  This process could take 7-10 days and would mean I would be without my iPhone 4 for the Chicago trip so I came up with a better solution.  I would deal with the error for 1 more week and make myself an appointment at the Apple store to get a replacement.  I was in and out in around 30 minutes (had to wait a few minutes before a rep could see me or I probably would have only been in there for around 10 minutes).  No more problems with the iPhone 4!  I have no idea what the complaint is with the phone losing signal when held a certain way.  I can’t even make the phone do it on purpose.  Like I said, I’m very happy with the iPhone 4!

American Girl (& the Apple store) was about a mile from our hotel on Michigan Ave (aka The Magnificent Mile) so we walked back, shopping in the various stores along the way…we could afford.  The girls loved H&M and a huge Forever 21 store.

Here is a link to the photo album of my trip to Chicago.

Day 2 – Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy Birthday, America!

On Sunday, we decided to take a 90 minute boat tour down the Chicago River and onto Lake Michigan.  This would allow us to see the sights.  I don’t think we quite thought it through as thoroughly as we should have.  It was HOT in Chicago.  We started our boat tour around 11 and were on the top deck of a floating sun/heat magnet.  The heat was pretty unbearable for the beginning of the tour.  When we got out onto Lake Michigan, though, the wind picked up and it really felt good.  I did get a bit of a sunburn, though.

On to the tour…

The tour took us down the Chicago River.  The tour guide told us stories and pointed out buildings of interest.  It’s definitely a different perspective to see some of the buildings that way as opposed to on the street walking by.

To get out onto Lake Michigan from the river, you have to go through a lock.  It was interesting to see the lock system at work.  Lake Michigan is 2 feet taller than the Chicago River.  When the lock into the lake opened (after the lock into the river closed), water came rushing into the lock and we were able to watch the water level rise on the dock.  (Likewise, we could see the water level falling when we were leaving the lake.)

Lake Michigan was gorgeous.  It was like you were on an ocean because there was literally water as far as you could see.  It was a gorgeous color of blue.  Like I mentioned above, the wind really picked up (as did the waves) when we got out on the lake.  I would have loved to have been able to jump in the water for a swim.  The view of the Chicago skyline from the lake was awesome.

I definitely recommend a boat tour if you are in Chicago.

After the boat tour, we were all pretty hungry so we went to eat at Giordano’s Pizza.  We were all looking forward to eating some Chicago style pizza.  Giordana’s didn’t disappoint.  It is a stuffed pizza.  Basically, the layers are…crust, cheese (and lots of it), crust, topping (i.e. pepperoni), sauce.  The sauce was a marinara-style sauce, really tomatoee.  (Is tomatoee a word?  I might have just made that up.  I basically meant that it tasted mostly like tomatoes and not many spices.)

Here is a link to the photo album from my trip to Chicago.

My sister Shelby won a state competition (& a trip to nationals) for a high school club she is a member of.  The national competition/convention was in Chicago.  Mom, Lindsey, & I decided to go along and make it a girls’ vacation while we were at it.  We left Saturday July 3rd and came back Thursday July 8th.  We packed a lot of sight seeing (& heat) into the 4 full days we were there.  I’m going to do a blog entry for each day so I don’t have to pack several stories and a lot of photos into one entry.

Day 1 – Saturday, July 3, 2010

We got into town late afternoon (after having a slight airplane delay).  We checked into our hotel and decided to walk down to Millennium Park (which was only a couple of blocks from our hotel).  We saw Pritzker Pavilion and the Bean (actually called Cloud Gate).  Everyone had fun taking pictures of themselves in the Bean.

The one aggravation we had the entire trip revolved around paying for meals.  There were a total of 9 people in our party.  1 person was not paying for all 9 meals.  However, almost every restaurant we ventured into required us to submit one payment instead of the 6 splits we needed.  It became a math session for some of us to sit and calculate how much everyone’s meal, tax, & tip amounted to and then to try to come up with the right amount of cash (because no one dared put the whole thing on a debit or credit card).  Is it really so strange to want to pay for our own meals?  I’ve never encountered this problem at home.  (As a matter of fact, I went out to eat with my family last night.  We had 13 people and most of us paid separately.)

Click here to see the photo album from my trip to Chicago.

My friend Penni mentioned to me in early spring that the Backstreet Boys were going to be pretty close to her hometown in concert June 5 at Wild Adventures in Valdosta, GA.  Penni is a HUGE Backstreet Boys fan.  I had been wanting to visit her in Georgia at some point in the near future and decided I might as well come at that time and go to the concert with her.  Our friend Karah was gracious enough to get us front row (and center) seats.  (Thanks, Karah!!!)

I’ve never considered myself that much of a Backstreet Boys fan.  In high school and early college when they were at the peak of popularity, I listened to and liked their music.  I was more of an N Sync fan, though.  The concert didn’t make me like BSB better than NSync (sorry Penni & Karah) but I did come home and add quite a bit of their music to my iPod to listen to.

The highlight of the night wasn’t necessarily even music related.  Brian Littrell’s 7 year old son Baylee came out on stage after the opening act.  The crowd was already going nuts in anticipation.  Baylee came out and simply said…”Are you ready for the Backstreet Boys?  Here are Nick, AJ, Howie, and <insert pause> my Daddy.”  It was adorable and the crowd went crazy!

The worst part of the night was my camera situation.  I didn’t want to lug both a point & shoot and my DSLR camera through the airport while traveling so I opted to just bring my DSLR.  I wasn’t allowed to use it at the concert, though.  The photos in this entry are courtesy of my iPhone.  Penni & Karah are sharing their photos with me but it isn’t quite the same.  Lesson learned.

Last weekend, my grandparents rented some cabins in Ponca, AR on the Buffalo River for our family.  We went out there Saturday afternoon and left Monday morning.

Before this week, there really hadn’t been enough rain in the area to allow us to canoe.  Instead of that, we spent the weekend sitting around and found a nice swimming hole to lay around in.

We had a great time and are hoping to make it an annual event.

The dog pictured above is not ours.  She lived next door to the cabins we were staying in.  The pictures were all taken within a couple of hours of arriving.  She made herself at home with all of us and was happy to jump up into your lap whether you really invited her or not.  My aunt considered taking her home.

Here is a link to my photo album from the weekend.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame opened Tuesday May 11.  It is located in downtown (sorry, uptown) Charlotte, NC.

While we were in the Charlotte area Memorial Day weekend, Penni & I decided to go to the NASCAR HoF.  We were there for well over 2 hours and didn’t even feel like we had seen it all.

The first 5 inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame were…

Bill France Sr

Bill France Jr

Junior Johnson

“The King” – Richard Petty

“The Intimidator” – Dale Earnhardt Sr

A blogger Penni & I met at the Coca-Cola tweet-up named Valli posted a great recap on her blog of the NASCAR Hall of Fame and all it has to offer.  Instead of trying to do the same, I thought I’d share a link to her post and then show some of my photos.  I will say that the NASCAR Hall of Fame is a must for a NASCAR fan and even sports fans when they are in the Charlotte area.

You Have to Visit the NASCAR Hall of Fame – Valli

Click here to view all of the pictures I took on my vacation.

I have been out of town, actually out of state, this week.  It’s been a week full of a lot of miles and a lot of fun so far.  I’ve been spending most of the week in Penni’s hometown of Waycross, GA.  On Wednesday, we went to the Okefenokee Swamp.

I can now say I’ve been to a swamp.

I’ve only been to the beach a handful of times in my life so I requested a trip to the beach while I’m this close.  Today, we went to Fernandina Beach, FL.

On Sunday, we went to the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte, NC.  (I’ll have photos and a blog post talking about that in the near future.)  I’ll be heading back home on Sunday but, before I go, we are attending a Backstreet Boys concert at Wild Adventures in Valdosta, GA with Karah.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that rain is causing weekend plan problems right now.  It is after all April.  Rain just seems to be throwing kinks in the weekend plans constantly right now.  Yesterday was supposed to start with the Race for the Cure and then heading up to Missouri to Lindsey & Grayson’s to help with their flower beds.  Instead, we had pouring rain that lasted off and on all day.  We did end up going up to MO for supper so the day wasn’t a total loss but it is still disappointing, nonetheless.

Last weekend, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series was at Texas Motor Speedway.  The forecast was showing a small chance of rain all weekend.  Our hope was that 30-40% wasn’t going to hurt the race on Sunday.

We went down to DFW on Friday.  We stay in Frisco right next to IKEA and Dr Pepper Ballpark, which is home of the double-A Texas Rangers team the Frisco RoughRiders.  Our hotel room had a great view down into the ballpark.  It’s too bad they aren’t ever at home the weekend of the NASCAR race.

We spent Friday evening at my uncle’s house in Dallas.  It was a great visit with him & Rod and a great home cooked meal!  I took tons of pictures of their flowers & plants while I was there (of course).

On Saturday, we got up early and went to the Dallas Farmers Market.  We left there with several fresh vegetables & some berries.  We also left seeing all of the great flowers blooming and wishing we could go home and plant them all in our yards.  Saturday night, our group of 13 met at Babe’s Chicken House in Frisco for dinner.  For those unfamiliar with Babe’s, it is a restaurant where you pick your meat you want to eat (fried chicken, chicken strips, pot roast, chicken fried steak, etc) and then all of the vegetables are served family style.  (NWA Peeps:  Think Monte Ne Inn here in Rogers, except there are other meats to choose from besides fried chicken.)  This is our second year in a row to eat there.  It’s very good!

Sunday was race day (or at least it was supposed to be).  That 30-40% chance was pretty well 100% at the track.  We headed out there hoping the rain would stop and the track would get dry.  No such luck.  The race was postponed til Monday.  (Shelby, Mom, & I headed on home Monday so Shelby & I didn’t get to see the race.)

While we were at the track on Sunday, NASCAR 4-time champion Jimmie Johnson held a Q&A session at the Chevrolet stage.  The major topic of the questions was that he & his wife Chandra are expecting a baby girl in July.  His words…”I hope she comes during the off-weekend in mid-July.”