Hangin' Up the Fanny Pack

We have done quite a bit of travelling lately, and I am so happy to be home. I loved being away, but it's so nice to get back in a routine and out of the suit case. We were in Louisiana two weeks ago, and last week, we were in Chicago. That's right, "the windy city." (It really is windy.) Eric had an engineering conference of some sort there, so we tagged along for a twenty-two hour round trip car ride.

While Eric was in his nerd's training, Tilly and I went shopping. We went to THE biggest mall I have ever seen one day, and the next day, we found a great outlet mall (in Wisconsin, don't ya know.) Then on Saturday, Eric got to come with us, and we went downtown the the Magnificient Mile and for a peek at the Navy Pier. (I say a peek because we were so tired and cold that we got close enough to say we saw it, then turned and headed back for the hotel.)

Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures. You see, when I travel, I HATE to look like a tourist (even though we ARE tourists when we travel. It's strange, I know!) They're so easy to spot, these tourists--cameras around their necks, wearing a t-shirt of the actual city they're in, fanny packs around their waists, socks up to their knees, and, perhaps my favorite, a HUGE map of the city they're in. I don't know what it is about these people but it cracks me up, and I would hate to fall into that category.

Here is Tilly WAY in front of the Navy Pier. This is as close as we got.

To get the the "L" we had to take a shuttle from our hotel. When we rode this, they didn't have car seats. It was evident that Tilly loved her freedom.

Here are my two cheeseballs in the shuttle...

Tilly also enjoyed the L. She said "woah" at least a thousand times while we rode it. Again, she didn't miss her carseat.

She is looking like quite the tourist on the L in this picture. (See the pointing finger??)

We really asked a lot of Tilly by putting her in the car for such a long time. However, she did pretty well. It got me thinking that the poor kid has done her share of travelling in her short life. Here are the list of states she has seen:

• Arkansas
• Louisiana
• Tennessee
• Mississippi
• Alabama
• Georgia
• South Carolina
• Missouri
• Illinois
• Wisconsin

Quite the explorer, huh?


Here is the first picture I took on our Chicago trip:

Why would I take a picture of my makeup? That's because I left every bit of my makeup at home! So I had to completely re-stock to look halfway presentable while out of town. I took a picture of this, and sadly, it will probably be what I remember most about Chicago! :)