Day 13 and 14 - Omaha to Chicago, Chicago to Syracuse via Amtrak

Wildlife tally: none, wildlife is scared of moving trains

Odd photo isn't it? Read on.

The hotel was good enough to put out breakfast at 3:30 for us. The shuttle got us to the train station at 4:15. Once again sleeping on the train was a challenge. But we managed it. We got into Chicago on time and so we got to spend a few hours in the city. We missed that on train ride out because the train was 3 hours late. We found a locker in the station to store our stuff and headed into the City.

Chicago's downtown does not seem to be as clean as some other cities I have been in recently. But there were a lot of people and it was vibrant. We decided to walk from the station to Millenium Park. It was hot - 93. David was not happy. He is not comfortable in cities. The first thing we found at the park was an unusual water fountain made of a pair of glass block towers known as Crown Fountain. Nicole and I took off our shoes and caught some spray. David played curmudgeon and sat on a bench with a frown on his face. 

The Crown fountain was refreshing

We checked out the Lurie Garden, some of the art installations and the band shell. They had a neat installation called Cloud Gate with looked like a giant polished metal misshapen egg. It was hollow and curved underneath. So when you got under it, your reflection could be seen many times, with the exact number depending on where you stood. We tried to count them all. We got as high as 8 but I am sure we missed some. The picture at the beginning of the post was taken there. 

It is tough to distinguish the mirrored surface from the reflection of the city, but this is Cloud Gate. You can see us reflected in the upper part of the photo. Look for the pink shirts.

A better shot I stole from the web

After poking around the park for a while, we were hot and you know what sounded like a good idea? Ice cream. Google maps failed us twice though. Both shops that were supposed to be near the park were no more. We were now even sweatier from the extra walking. So dinner instead. And maybe we could find ice cream on the walk back to the train station. We tried a new experience, a noodle restaurant called Noodles and Company. It was excellent and inexpensive to boot. The best part for the kids was the soda machine. Coke has a machine out called Freestyle that can make a blended soda. They claim it can make over 125 combinations. David in particular likes to mix his drinks even at a regular soda machine like you find in Burger King. This was like heaven to him! 

David - vanilla root beer

Nicole - raspberry ginger ale

Glenn - raspberry lemonade

Susan - lime & raspberry and normal diet coke

We found a Baskin Robbins on the way back to the train station so we did get our ice cream fix after all. Susan desperately wanted a Starbucks coffee or any good coffee since the midwest did not seem to know about Starbucks.  She did have one good coffee in West Yellowstone, but for those of you who know Susan's coffee habit, she was definitely feeling deprived. Unfortunately it was around 7PM and apparently downtown Chicago rolls up the sidewalks after the office workers leave for the day. We tried 3 different Starbuck locations and they were all closed. We finally saw some guy on the street with a Starbucks iced coffee and asked him where he got it. I am sure he thought we were crazy. It was one block away. Susan had her hot coffee safely in hand within a couple of minutes. Keep in mind we are all sweating because it is in the high 80s still. Go figure. We boarded our train at 9:30 PM and were on our way to Syracuse. 

Have I mentioned sleeping on the train stinks? Once again we were reminded of this. The guy behind us snored loudly. And a baby who screamed most of the night was about 8 rows in front of us. Add to that the sudden motions of the train. You get the picture. 

We were a little late into Syracuse but the smiling faces of the Ives were there to greet us and take us home. Thanks!

We are now safely home with a lot of memories and some sleep to catch up on.  Susan has a case of motion sickness that she's dealing with today.  I guess the Dramamine she took on the on the train ride out actually worked.  She didn't take it on the way home. The kids have one week of summer left before school starts so they have some time to rest up. Hopefully they will remember this trip the rest of their lives.

Should I wake her up for dinner?

I'll have one more wrap up post tomorrow including some suggestions if you ever do something like this yourself.