Chicago

Our "children/grandchildren alarm bell went off, not with a murmur, but with a CLANG, so we made plans to visit the kids in Chicago and Orlando on our latest venture from Los Angeles.

Since all of the grandchildren are in school, we needed to be with each family over a weekend so we had to work around their timing.

We headed to Chicago first...and it was quickly becoming Fall. The "something in the air" was rain....but it was kind of fun to smell the wafts of autumn coming through. Zoe and Ben had soccer practice and a game (that got rained out)...and we even got to see some of a dance rehearsal. But the most fun was being able to take the kids alone on a double-decker tour bus that did a major loop through Chicago and the neighborhoods. The kids LOVED the bus...and the driver....and we loved seeing the new Trump Tower and hotel that is now larger than the Sears Tower!!! Millennium Park is great to walk through, as is Navy Pier, and we had a fun lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.

The Fairmont Hotel at Millennium Park was our home away from home for 4 nights and it was just perfect. It is on the other side of the river...which means a little longer walk down to the shopping area...but manageable. The rooms were large and wonderful. We loved having a coffee bar in the room for late night/early morning "wakeups". We even managed to sneak in an anniversary dinner with just the adults at Le Colonnial...and it was a lovely way to end our visit.

According to my mother, a very wise woman, "fish and relatives smell after 3 days"...so not wanting to take that chance, we kissed everyone goodbye on Sunday. We had 5 days to kill before arriving in Orlando to visit our North Carolina newly re-located transplant children/grandchildren, so off to our own Florida adventure we went.