Saturday morning, I woke the kids up super early. I took them to a friends house to see his horses. The boys absolutely loved it. We honestly didn't see the real horses, but we saw an 4 year old mule that looks like a horse, and a 3 month old mule. We also saw numerous donkeys, some as young as 3 weeks old. The oldest, an 8 year old donkey, was blind and pregnant. I feel bad for her.
After we got home, we had just enough time to clean up before we had to leave again for Michael's violin lesson. He really likes this instrument without any pushing on my part. I think he enjoys it more than piano, even though he is further ahead in piano.
With violin completed, now our Chicago vacation really gets started. A quick lunch, and then we hit the road. The boys had no idea where we were going. At first, they weren't too happy. I had banned all electronics for the weekend (which I weaken up a bit later), so that meant no DS on the road trip. I also would not play mainstream radio. I played a 5 disc Classical Piano Set, Suzuki CD, or kids Spanish Audio CD. I also provided about 15 books for Michael to choose from. His options were to read outloud to his brother or listen to music of "choice" and look at the scenary.
I was really happy with the way this worked out, because Michael actually paid attention to his surroundings and cars around us. That has never happened before. Normally, his nose is straight into the screen of the DS.
3 hours later, we arrived in Gurnee, IL. Checked in at the hotel, had Michael finish up his piano homework, and decided what we wanted to do. It was only 4 PM. After some hotel lobby brochure snooping, we decided to go towards Lake Michigan.
We got back to the hotel by 8. Luckily, our hotel shared it's parking lot with a couple economic restaurants. Ordered to go, and dined in our room. I allowed Michael and Andrew to watch television, since we'd spent the greatest majority of the day full of family time.
Sunday morning came fast. The Fair opens at 10, and I wanted to leave the hotel by 9. We did so great. I got the kids up, showered, and dressed. All of us downstairs, each of us eating a substantially large breakfast, energized and ready to go. Packed up the car, checked out, and hit the road. The fair is only 10 miles up the road, so we get there around 9:15. The gates are still locked. I start to wonder how they planned to get people parked, and start the outside gate show at 9:45 if they won't even let people park at 9:15. But...Little did I know, the hotel room clock was one hour fast. I kept looking at the minutes in the car, not the hour. It was only 8:15!
A whole hour to kill, without wanting to waste gas or extra money. Only one thing left to do.
Illinois Beach State Park. It had rained in Northern Chicago that morning, and it was still early. We were the only ones there. Nothing commercial around and it made the view beautiful. It was only 10 minutes from the Fair. We spent maybe 30 minutes on the sand, and then went back.
Michael and Andrew loved the Fair. Michael wants to go back with just him and I. Andrew wants to go back to see the Faeries. It was a lot of fun. I took 120+ pictures, so it's hard to pick which ones to post.
If anyone would like more pictures, especially pictures of the ladies gowns, I have tons of photos. I did Civil War Reenactments 10 years ago, so I have a couple 19th century gowns I made. I sometimes would love to dress up for a Fair. It's so expensive... I easily spent $100-150 at the Fair alone, just one day. The costs of making a costume, and driving to a Fair enough to actually use it... That's a whole other story.
