Alright Already - Time to get back to work

Back at work today recovering from the Chicago excursion. We had a really good time, the weather was incredible, my daughter was cooperative, and we came home with some money. A good day.

We boarded the train here at about 8:45am and got into Chicago around 10:45am. Baby Girl wasn't as excited about the whole train ride experience as I thought she should have been. When the train started off she made the comment that it was like a mix between riding in a car and on a plane - like a car because we were on the ground and like a plane because of the way the seats look. And to think, she's only 5 1/2 and made that observation.

My mom sat next to a lady that is a frequent Chicago traveler and she gave us tons of inside information - like about the free trolley that runs pretty much to everywhere we wanted to go. For free. In Chicago. So, we took advantage of that to get to the American Girl store and to Navy Pier.

The American Girl store is like nothing I've ever seen before. Three floors of little girls with their dolls toting around baskets, boxes and bottles of all things American Girl. It was insane, absolutely insane. My daughter was trying to follow suit with all the other little girls there by putting anything she could get her hands on into our basket. If I had let her get all the stuff she put in, which I didn't, she could have easily cost me $500. Just with the few things she did get - a pair of glasses for her doll (still can't figure that one out since she doesn't wear glasses), a package of undershirts and underwear for her doll, and an outfit combo (shirt, pants, shoes and a book) - it was $60. Unreal.

For lunch we hoofed it to Ed Debevich's. "Soda Pop" rocks! Our waiter, Soda Pop, was the typical model of rudeness to my mom and I, or "Desperate Housewives" as he called us, but sugar and spice to Baby Girl. The only thing he did wrong by her was tell her he had her hamBOOGER and that my mom's hambooger even had snot on it. She wouldn't eat her sandwich until he came back and told her he was teasing. She got to see them dance on the counter, which was something she was looking forward to, and ate the World's Smallest Sundae, complete with commemorative cup to bring home.

After lunch we hit Navy Pier and just kind of walked around. Hit Build-A-Bear and a few other spots and kicked back and did some people watching. Lots and lots of people wearing things they had NO right to be wearing. I wanted so badly to ask one particular lady if she owned a mirror. Eeek!

We took the water taxi back to Union Station from Navy Pier, that was fun. Then we sat and waited until it was time to board our train. It was packed on the way home, all the college kids from the City heading back to Western Illinois with all their bags. I can't imagine getting on a train with all the stuff I would take to college for a year, that would be a huge pain in the ass.

So, that's it - back to the grind stone today. Boss man is still gone, haven't heard from him since Friday. I'm beginning to wonder if he got bumped off while he was in New York.