Happy Birthday Moriah!

Today is Moriah's 15th birthday! I can't believe it! The other thing I can't believe is that it has been a whole year since we went to Chicago for her 14th birthday and I never shared pictures!
First of all I need to say that our trip would not have been successful without the expert planning of Pamela, a wonderful hostess and true Chicagoan. Pam took my sad itinerary and turned it into a working piece of art:-)

Upon arriving to the Windy City, we visited China Town


While there we ate some wonderful Chinese food at the Chai Cafe, a restaurant owned by a neighbor of Pamela and her family.

Now, if my memory serves my correctly, the next day we took a ride on the "L" with transportation tickets that Pamela had delivered to the hotel for our use while in the city. We rode out to a station near Pamela's home, then took the short drive to her house and were treated to a wonderful breakfast. We then rode bikes along the shore of Lake Michigan to the Aquarium.


After a great dolphin show we rode on a bit further to see the Buckingham Fountain, quite impressive!


I didn't get any pictures of us on a free trolley, but we did take the trolley quite a bit. We also took the bus, the subway, and rode in a few taxis. We tried to take a water taxi, but were confused about where it would take us!

We spent one day in and around Millennium Park. Crown Fountain was a little creepy, but looked like fun water play for the little ones.


Walked around the Bean, which I think is actually called Cloud Gate(?).



And visited the Cultural Center, which was very fascinating. It was built in 1897 as the city's public library. I wish I could remember everything we learned on the tour. I believe it is actually two buildings that were back to back. One being a place where veterans of some war or another met. The building was amazing though. No one puts care into their work anymore like the builders of these old structures did. Several details through out the building reminded me of Italy. The glass you see here on the floor was actually the light source for the lower floor.


And of course there is the Tiffany Dome. Said to be the largest of it's kind in the world.


Mark and I spent quite a bit of time at the Field Museum and I wanted Moriah to experience the same. I found that visiting the Field twice in 4 months was a bit much, however, no trip to Chicago would be complete without a tour of the Field.


We were able to walk to Navy Pier from our Hotel and we had a great time! Mark and I went during the day and just walked around, Moriah and I were really able to experience it the evening we were there. The lights and sights were dazzling, the fire works display amazing!! Too bad my camera battery died while we were there:-(


One of Moriah's favorite spots was the Surgical Museum, what can I say? She is her father's daughter!


We ate a lot of wonderful food while in Chicago, but sometimes you just want something familiar.

Now, Pamela told us that Panda was suburban mall food, which made me really not want to eat there ever again, but when we saw a Panda in a busling area of Chicago we thought, "hey, this isn't the suburbs, and this isn't a mall, so it must be o.k.!" ;-)


There was really so much more that we saw and did, oh, like the play we saw at the Looking Glass Theater, or the Green House at the Museum of Science and Industry, but I really wish I would have blogged all of this last year when it was fresh in my little brain!

Oh well..here are the 15 things that Moriah loves the most:

1.God
2. Ocean
3. Family
4. Friends
5. Startrek
6. Books
7. Art
8. The Greeks
9. Texting/Phone
10. Clothes
11. Gum (ah, life's little pleasures!)
12. Recycling
13. Logic Puzzles
14. Chinese Food
15. The Office