ballantynes in chicago

last weekend, my parents and caitlin came to visit us in chicago. we had so much fun, we wish they could visit a lot more often!

they arrived thursday night, and we had a birthday/birthday/birthday/mother's day party with cait's favorite almond joy cake.

friday

on friday, we rode the l went to wrigley field for a cub’s game. it turns out the cubs lost to the pirates, but we left while they were still ahead. we had great seats—a fantastic view and, most importantly, in the shade. cait tried to spot the people switching the scoreboard in the outfield and got an official cubs jersey. dad cheered for the astros under his breath.

ummm... face?

after the game, we went to the sears/willis tower skydeck. i wasn’t looking forward to this excursion—i was pretty sure the 103-story elevator was going to go all tower of terror on us. but it didn’t, and it was so awesome! you can see everything from the skydeck, but the craziest thing are the cubes. four glass cubes extend like five feet off the west side of the building, and people can go in them.

mom and i were sort of brave—we put our feet on the glass but clung to the wall. todd and dad actually walked out into the cubes. but fearless caitlin did a handstand 103 stories above wacker drive! that’s right, 103 stories looking down. when we left, she said “i am so going to brag about this!” bragging rights well deserved, roo.

cait continued her tour of awesomeness by choosing the best deep dish pizza i’ve yet eaten in chicago (at pizano’s). todd prefers lou malnati’s, but that is a debate for another day.

saturday

on saturday, we split up—todd and cait spent all day at the shedd aquarium and the field museum; mom, dad, and i went to wright plus, the once-yearly interior tour of homes designed by frank lloyd wright and a few other notable architects. we only went to half of the houses, but we were exhausted. i thought the coolest part of the tour was wright’s two-story, octagonal studio drafting room (great light) and the art glass entry on the frank w. thomas house. there are some 100% creepy man statues at the entrance to his studio that look like gollum from the lord of the rings.

after the tour, the parents and i went back downtown to meet todd and cait and get some popcorn from garrett’s. so good. probably the only chicago food i will miss. the traditional chicago mix is messy (carmel corn + greasy cheese corn… ew), so we grabbed a couple bags of carmel + nuts. yum!

sunday

on sunday, we took dad to the airport so he could fly to germany for a business trip. the rest of us went home and recovered from a long couple of days on our feet. after church, we watched “napoleon dynamite” and “paul blart: mall cop” (why…). i then forbade todd or cait from choosing movies for the rest of the trip.

monday

on monday, we went to the museum of the art institute of chicago. that museum is huge, and we saw most of it! cait kept thinking everything was a replica. my favorite exhibit is if the miniature interiors. and it turns out that todd loves monet, who knew?

the high temperature for the day was like 60 degrees and it was raining. that was pretty much the case for the entire time my family was here, then it jumped up to 90 the next weekend. so after the museum we walked (quickly) over to see the face waterfall thingy (crown fountain) and the bean (cloud gate) in millennium park. cait grabbed my umbrella and walked through the water.

tuesday

i took mom and cait to the airport on tuesday morning. we were so sad to see them go! we really loved having (most of) my family in town, and want them to visit all the time.