Sweeswago

“Chicago, Chicago that toddling town/ Chicago, Chicago I will show you around” 

Chicago, Fred Fisher

Like so many other animals, the approach of cold weather awakens within Amanda and me a need to travel. While everyone else prepares to migrate south, we usually get an itching to go north to Chicago. Wintertime in Chicago, with the lake effect weather, is a beautiful time to visit. Wait, I said that wrong. Wintertime in Chicago, with the lake effect weather, is a cheaper time to visit.

Ezra has only been to Chicago during the winter. He believes it is a city that is always cold, snowy, and probably located somewhere near the North Pole, but the weather is not why we love our trips to Chicago. I’m always excited to take Ezra to an actual city - there are so many things to do, so much to experience. Ezra mastered many things this trip: public transportation, walking city blocks, checkers. The one thing he could not quite get a handle on was the city’s name.

“What is it again?”

“Chicago.”

“Sweeswago. Sweeswago?”

“Chicago.”

“Sweeswago.”

Though he finally figured out the pronunciation, he decided he like “Sweeswago” better.

He also really liked being in the city, whatever it’s called. Here is Ezra’s list of his favorite parts of our trip:

1.    Staying in a hotel. “Our hotel was amazing!” (It was actually pretty standard.)

2.    Trains and buses. We took the Amtrak to Chicago and used public transportation to get around the city.  Ezra was always the first to spot the bus we were waiting for, “here comes the #6 bus,” and always knew which stop we needed when on the “L”. He also discovered the pastime of people watching while using public transportation. “Why does that guy keep yelling?”

3.    Escalators.

4.    Dinosaurs at the Field Museum, especially Sue. We spent two hours at the museum. All of that time was in the Evolving Planet/Dinosaur Hall exhibit. We would have stayed longer, but the museum was closing.

Two vertebrae from a Brachiosaurus and an Apatosaurus footprint

5.    Our hotel, again. “It was so beautiful. Our ‘fridge was in a little spot. It was amazing!”

6.    ZooLights at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

7.    The ice sculptor at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

8.    Did Ezra mention he really likes escalators?

9.    And the hotel had a pool! Ezra found this very exciting even though he was reluctant to get in the pool. Mostly he played checkers poolside.

10.    The Museum of Science & Industry. Ezra’s favorites included: The Idea Factory; the stage show about digestion, “Poop Happens”; and milking a [model] cow.

11.    Trains and buses, again. We all agree we would be happy to only use public transportation, and not own a car.