Chicago and Milwaukee Vacation at Sixteen

Hello! If you haven't visited the blog the past few days, I have been going back and revisiting the yearly family vacations I took as a teenager. Read 2002's and 2003's if you missed them. Today I'm back again with more family vacation adventures! In 2004, I went to Chicago and Milwaukee with the family. I was 16. This trip was not the most exciting, just a small little getaway (with lots of shopping of course). The pictures are not my most flattering, but I'm baring all for the world. So get ready for another vacation flashback. And witness the adventures of visiting my great aunt (who passed away shortly after), my dad's obnoxious snoring in the hotel, and lots and lots of Chicago-style shopping:

(Image from here)

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Wednesday, July 7, 2004
"We left for vacation on Monday...we're in the van right now going to Chicago. It's 10:30 am, and we just checked out of our hotel in Milwaukee."

"Monday morning, we left at like 8:20 am. At like 11 or so, we stopped at Aunt Mary's house. It was the first time she's seen us since we were really little...We thought we had better go there to see her, because she's not doing very well, and she might not make it very longer..Billy was there too...the whole thing was kinda weird. There was this girl that takes care of her, and she was Polish. She understood English but she was a little weird. Aunt Mary gave Mom an opal ring, and then there was a little diamond ring too, but she didn't know who to give it to, so the Polish lady put it on my finger. So it's mine, I guess. We stayed there until about noon, and we were getting kind of hungry, so we stopped at an IHOP to eat lunch in Gurnee...When we finally got to our hotel in Pewaukee, which is like a suburb of Milwaukee, it was 3:00. We just watched TV and went swimming in the pool. For dinner, we walked over to the Wisconsin Machine Shed by our hotel, and I ordered the Caesar salad with no chicken and potato wedges. Well, what I didn't know was that the freakin' salad was the size of a freakin' turkey! It was huge! I was like, "Yeah, I don't think I'm gunna be able to eat my potato wedges!" Well, anyway, I ate almost the whole salad! And I only could eat one potato wedge! So we took them with us in a box, and I have no clue where they are. Oh well. The rest of the night, we watched the finale of For Love or Money and Who Wants to Marry My Dad?. We went to bed at 10:30, but I don't think I fell asleep 'til like 1:00. Nobody could fall asleep, because Dad was snoring so bad! It was terrible!"

"Yesterday we ate breakfast and then went to the mall and shopped. It wasn't a huge mall, it was just like North Park or South Park. I got these really cute flip-flops and a silver heart chain necklace. We ate in the food court, then we went back to our hotel and basically watched TV until we left for the game. At like 5:00, we left and ate at Culver's...Then we went to Milwaukee for the Brewers/Cubs game.

At the Cubs-Brewers game in Milwaukee.

The stadium was awesome. The roof was up, so it was like we were inside. We sat on the top, but there were still a lot of people behind us. We sat above Right field. The game wasn't too exciting, but it was cool to see Sosa, Alou, and Prior. I'd say about half of the fans were Cub fans. Unfortunately, we lost 2-4. Well, we're heading to Chicago right now. It looks like it might rain, though."

Friday, July 9, 2004
"Right now it's almost 3:00, and we're leaving Chicago. And it's raining! We got here Wednesday, checked into our hotel, etc. Then we went to the Field Museum. There was A LOT of stuff there, but it was really boring. It was like, rocks, fossils, gems, animals, and ancient artifacts, and stuff like that. My favorite part was this dark room with display cases all around that were lit up, and they were full of different gemstones. There were diamonds, opals, and all these really pretty gems. There was a McDonald's inside the museum, so we ate there. That was actually my favorite part of the museum!"

"Wednesday night, we left our car in a parking garage next door to our hotel, and we walked to a few stores and looked around, and then we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. I got the veggie sandwich with carrots and celery and Ranch dressing. Then we just went back to our hotel and watched TV. Our hotel was the Best Western Inn of Chicago. It was downtown, and we stayed on the 18th floor. It wasn't as nice as our other one, though. It was a lot smaller (Well, the room anyway)."

Me in our hotel room in Chicago

"Yesterday morning, we walked across the street and ate breakfast at a little cafe. I got the fruit plate that had watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas, apples, oranges, and strawberries, and raisin bread. We went shopping on Michigan Avenue all day. There were really nice stores (and really expensive!) There were cool stores like Forever 21, Wet Seal, Rampage, and Sephora. I liked Nordstrom's, too. It had really expensive stuff, though. I got this $12 Hard Candy lip gloss at Sephora, a black and pink mini skirt and 2 camis (black and pink) at Forever 21, and earrings at H&M and Claire's. We ate cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory. They had SO many desserts and cheesecakes! We had to wait a half-hour, but it was really nice and sunny outside, so we just sat out there on the steps and waited. We ate outside, and I got the chocolate chip cookie dough cheesecake. It was really good! I couldn't eat it all though.."

"Then last night we went to Navy Pier. It was really cool, but I had been there before on my 6th grade field trip. We went in the shops inside. I got a gray and pink Navy Pier sweatshirt and a crystal necklace. We ate dinner in the food court. Mom and Haley had McDonald's, and me and Dad had deli sandwiches."

"This morning we ate doughnuts at Dunkin' Donuts. Then we went back to Navy Pier and went on an architecture boat tour on the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. It lasted like an hour, and it was actually pretty cool. It was sunny and really nice. Then we went inside and ate..and me and Haley bought Cubs shirts....Now we're here in traffic moving really slow...We should get home tonight around 6 or 7."

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I can say now that I have gone back to the lovely city of Chicago many times, and whether it was seeing a concert at the House of Blues, taking a boat cruise on Lake Michigan, riding the giant Navy Pier ferris wheel, going up in the John Hancock Building, or seeing a Cubs game, it has always been a great time! I have also gone back to Milwaukee since then and made a trip to the amazing art museum! Definitely one of the best I've been to, besides the Art Institute in Chicago. Lots to do in those cities!

Well, I'll have a house-related post up tomorrow with a current update of where we are with renovations and all that. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!