Chicago Style Roadtrip #TBTStories

Today's Throwback Thursday story comes to you from the Windy City. Jim and I are enjoying a little visit to Chicago with grandson Matthew, so I dug up a photo of our five from our Chicago road trip circa 1998 (I think).

The photo was taken outside Shedd Aquarium after our spring break adventure. We didn't have plans for spring break that year, and Jim was busy with work, so I told the kids we could head out, destination unknown, on a day's drive, spend the night, and return the next day. To make it even more interesting, I wrote little instructions on slips of paper that we drew out along the way. Things like: stop and buy a pop from a machine, stop at a church, sing a song when we cross a river, and stop in a college town.

We headed north on State Road 3, and made a stop at the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in New Castle. It happened to be the day they were honoring the Silver Anniversary team, so we ran into Kent Benson, who played for that team in Bloomington during a couple of those banner years. :)

After a stop at Purdue (where else?), we continued north toward Chicago. Since it was supper time by then, I told them we would stay at a hotel in Merrillville, and drive into the city in the morning. (A little safer that way.) :)

Jonathan 10, Adam 7, David 15, Jennifer 12, Andrew 13

We spent a fun day at Shedd Aquarium, Niketown, and Michael Jordan's restaurant where our sweet waitress gave us free dessert. She was from a big family, and was seldom allowed to order dessert at a restaurant, so she wanted the kids to have some. I'm guessing she also felt sorry for this crazy brave frazzled mom gallivanting around Chicago with her five kids. :) I remember that the biggest challenge of the trip was finding a spot to park our 12 passenger van. 

As a little aside, someone once noticed that none of the kids have hands in this photo. Lol.

Today's trip ended with a cloudy evening, and a thunderstorm cancelled the boat ride we had planned. Here is a photo of Matthew holding up the clouds at Navy Pier. I'll share more about our current Chicago adventure tomorrow.

Linking up with Jessica at The Mom Creative for Throwback Thursday Stories. #TBTStories.