2013 Chicago Winter Travel Story

Posted by on Feb 8, 2013 in Published/Commercial, Travel | No Comments

2013 Chicago 1

Above: view of the Chicago skyline looking out over Lake Michigan from the Hancock Tower.

Welcome to Chicago! A few weeks ago, we hit the road to do a travel story for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Chicago in winter time. It’s one of our favorite places to go for a quick weekend. Tons of things to do and the food everywhere is awesome. And five hours on the road is pretty manageable with the two boys, provided the iPad batteries hold up. Details of the trip can be found in the wife’s February 9th, 2013 edition of Home & Away section of the Post-Dispatch.  Here I highlight a few pictures you’ll see in the paper from the trip and a few extras that were my favorite. Above: view of the Chicago skyline looking out over Lake Michigan from the Hancock Tower.

2013 Chicago 2

Above: Field Museum and the famous Sue. There are plenty of other attractions all together within walking distance. Although when it’s pretty cold and windy, you might think otherwise. Field museum is one of our favorite places to go – especially being dinosaur enthusiasts.

2013 Chicago 3

Above: More of Field Museum. You really can’t get to all the Field Museum has to offer in one trip. You could, but you would miss a ton of information and details. We’ve been there several times and there is always something fun and interesting to come across for young and old.

2013 Chicago 5

Above: More fossils and Lucy. This is an area you can spend the entire day in. So many things to see, touch, interact with.

2013 Chicago 6

Above: View from the Hancock Observatory. Tip: get there late in the day to take in the sunset if you can. But catch it quick, cause when that sun goes down, it goes down fast. But it is absolutely beautiful.

2013 Chicago 7

Above: Skating in the Sky This was pretty cool for the boys to do. Wife also had her first skating experience here but I wasn’t able to show you those pics. Chicago skyline and synthetic ice skating. Pretty neat.

2013 Chicago 8

Above: Our hotel, the Peninsula. This was a really nice place. Although a bit “fancy,” we were never made to feel out of place. Even dinner in the lobby, we were intimidated by the suits and tuxes until we were sat next to another table with a family of girls in jeans. Food was awesome. Room was so cool. Remote boxes and phones everywhere. TV bathroom above a good soaking tub. Our view was great and peered over their own synthetic ice rink.

2013 Chicago 16

Above: The next day, watching a little girl work on her skating moves from our room. A different angle than what we would be used to. I love all that white in the pic.

2013 Chicago 11

Above: The pool in the Peninsula. We had it all to ourselves that night. The boys did most of the swimming and the wife and I relaxed next to it playing on our iPhones and going over details of the day.

For appropriate and safe use, you need talk cialis tadalafil 100mg to your doctor. That, and thanks to its anti-inflammatory qualities; peppermint is also frequently used in soothing toothache and headaches too! Though these are common ailments are just the tip (ha!) of the iceberg when it comes to matters of sex especially this page on sale now cialis order on line when they lack the confidence of performing each time you are with your partner.* The jelly is designed to match needs of different people suffering from high blood pressure, high. It never fails to give the glacialridgebyway.com generic levitra online best results to the person. As the viagra without prescriptions canada methodology of penis augmentation goes on for a long compass, so the viable utilization of penis pumps is a suitable and well known medicine utilized for the prime treatment for erectile dysfunction in all settings including diabetes. 2013 Chicago 9

Above: Giordano’s Pizza. And lucky for us, it’s across the street from the hotel. We’ve done Gino’s East the last time we were in Chicago and several people recommended this place to us. We were so exhausted from the day that it was nice to just take a few steps for dinner. Food was awesome. Highly recommended.

2013 Chicago 10

Above: After a full belly, we decided to do a little geocaching in the area. Our goal this year is to find a cache in several states (which will be super fun on our Summer trip out west). I wish I had a bit more time for some night photography in Chicago. Maybe next time.

2013 Chicago 12

Above: The U-505 Submarine Exhibit at the Museum of Science & Industry. We walked by this quickly last year. This time, my youngest son and I wanted to do the actual tour on board the ship.

2013 Chicago 13

Above: U-505 tour is awesome. Our guide was fantastic. You do squeeze into some tight quarters as you “relive” some events of the german sailors that were on the sub. For a little guy like my 6yo, he could walk around pretty good. For me, I’m constantly ducking and making sure not to smash my camera. Wife wouldn’t do it because she doesn’t do well in tight spaces. Here’s a brief video I did of our tour.

2013 Chicago 14

Above: More of the Museum of Science & Industry

Chicago 2014

2013 Chicago 15

Above: No trip is complete without stopping by Navy Pier (and we had a geocache there to find). We’ve been to Bubba Gumps each time we’ve been to Chicago with the boys. It’s more of a tradition than anything else.

Luxe Photography by Brian Sirimaturos

Above: Adler Planetarium. Now I’m a HUGE astronomy guy. I love anything that has to do with space. I have to be honest and say I wasn’t crazy about Adler. My kids didn’t like it either. Astronomy and space is such an exciting facet of science. My opinion – I think Adler needs to redesign how they present information and make things fun and exciting. It’s hard to do so. But I was just bored and not interested – and you’re talking to a guy that can watch every Through the Wormhole episode – Every Hawking special. Books, magazine and posters of space. All the other museums we went to did a great job in making things fun and interesting for young and old alike. I really hope Adler takes a look at changing some things.

Luxe Photography by Brian Sirimaturos

Above: Ice Skating in Milennium Park. This is the lead shot for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Home & Away section this weekend. The long lines were for people renting skates, but the boys brought their own and the wife and I enjoyed the skyline and the fun they had with others in the rink.

2013 Chicago 17 STL 17

Above: On our way home back to St. Louis. Just right place, right time sort of thing. The wife had to take the wheel briefly as we snapped this shot. It’s now my banner pic for @LuxePhotoSTL.

Leave a Reply