Spring Break (Day 1)

Is there anything better than beginning your day with a train ride and ending it full of cupcakes? Our first day of spring break was a lot of fun. We got the kids up in the O'Dark Hundreds to catch a 7:30 train to Chicago.

From our previous experiences on Amtrak, the trip there is often as much a highlight of the day as whatever is planned next. The kids love the train trip. We can move around, they can play, and the trip goes quite quickly ... with no stress.

We arrived in Chicago around 10 am. The first stop was the hotel, where we checked our bags so we could travel a bit more lightly through the rest of the day. The hotel was very close to Rick Bayless' fabulous Frontera Grill, so we killed a little time walking around Michigan Avenue waiting for the restaurant to open for lunch. We had gone there over the 4th of July three years ago and loved not only how delicious the food was, but how with it our waitress was in helping with some gluten free options. While this server wasn't quite as well versed with the GF choices, we still all managed to have a great lunch and leave with full bellies.

The next stop was the Adler Planetarium. My good friend Dave had left his job with the BCPA to take a position with the Adler nearly three years ago. Last year he gifted us with a membership pass, which we had not had the chance to use until this week -- two days before it expired.

The trip was fun, though. It was the first trip to the planetarium for all of us. Dave got us into a couple of the Adler's special programs, but the kids had the best time in a kid-friendly area, complete with little rover robots, dress up dolls, and space loader vehicles, which the kids could drive a little ... but ultimately became the scene of a huge dodgeball fight between the kids, as the moon rocks were soft little foam stones, perfect for throwing.

We then retreated to the hotel for a lazy night in. The kids and Amy watched a movie, while I picked up some takeout and made a trip to a nearby Whole Foods for some gluten free cupcakes they sell made by a local bakery. The kids loved them, as the hotel cleaning staff no doubt discovered when they were cleaning our room the next day. There were little chocolate crumbs EVERYWHERE!