Travel Bug Strikes Again!

We have the itch again! Well mainly me, but I'm the driving force in our travels. We have been talking about hitting up Chicago because it's close, right by the Great Lakes, and a BIG city. We have never been to city this big before--I don't really count Las Vegas because that's mainly one street with a bunch of casinos and that's it. So I've been doing my homework and we are very close to booking it!

We are aiming for early October. According to my calculations the weather should average in the 60s. We aren't planning on staying too long just because we will have Brad with us and it can get hard to find affordable family-friendly places to eat in a strange city. Here are the hotels that we are deciding between:

Tremont Suites
Hotel Indigo Gold Coast

Inn of Chicago

Club Quarters Central Loop

The Seneca Hotel

I am going over reviews, size, distance, and of course price. The main thing is that they are in very close walking distance to the things we are aiming on seeing. We aren't going to rent a car because I do NOT want to drive in downtown Chicago. We will take a shuttle from the airport to the hotel, then just walk or whatever to where we want to go. With our interests, I would like to see Navy Pier, ride the Ferris Wheel, see the beaches, and go up to John Hancock Observatory. I was going to look into the Sears Tower, but there were a lot of bad reviews (in terms of family travel) because of long lines and long wait times. And with a 1 year old tagging along, our tension level will already be elevated so we don't need any further stressors that can be avoided!

I am pretty excited though! I think it will be amazing just to walk around the city streets and watch everything going on; to see the vendors and performers, store fronts and neon signs. And of course we are going to try Chicago-style pizza and hot dogs! I'm already thinking of how to scrapbook everything....