Our trip!

Well, we had a great time on our trip. We were very busy and are still very tired. I'm so glad we decided to take this Monday off to get caught up before plunging back in to the workday.

I could give you ascerbic commentary on events that happened on our trip, but I've been told I complain too much, so I will skip that for now. Later I will post a montage of our photos that I took, and also I'll upload a few videos.

We left Sacramento airport at 12:15 in the morning, and arrived in Chicago about 10:10am after a brief layover in Houston. We picked up our rental car, which turned out to be a minivan, and drove into Joliet and checked into our motel. We took a nap and got a phone call from Alamo saying that we had left a bag behind at the rental counter! Dang it! So we had to drive all the way back to O'Hare and pick it up. We got back in time to see the last half of Marie's game, but I forgot the camera! I couldn't believe it. She had another game on Friday evening, but it was cancelled due to bad weather. The only game photos I got were from Shane's game Saturday morning.

Anyway, after the game we were exhausted so we went back to the hotel. The next day was Wednesday, and we went over to Bill's dad's and visitied with him, and had lunch with him. We also took him to the bank and to Barnes & Noble. We left in the early afternoon and drove out to Bill's sister Nancy's house, which was about 45 minutes away. We decided to go to the cemetary and visit Bill's mom's grave. I got some pictures out there. We went back to Nancy's and visited with her, and then we were supposed to pick up Bill's dad that evening to go out to dinner at Outback for Bill's birthday. We were late leaving and got caught in rush hour traffic, and were half an hour late picking him up. Unfortunately Bill's dad had forgotten we were coming and had gone down and had eaten dinner! But he came with us anyway. Nancy and her husband and oldest son came, as did Jennie and her husband and the kids. It was a large group and we had a lot of fun.

The next day was Thursday, and Bill and I drove into Chicago to spend the afternoon. I know now why people take public transportation in Chicago, because driving it was crazy! First we went to Harpo Studios and Bill and I took some great pictures. We went into the Oprah Store and Bill spoiled me rotten with a lot of stuff! I got a t-shirt, a really soft hooded, zipped sweatshirt, a hat, a water bottle, a coffee cup and a beautiful bookmark with my birthstone on it. What a haul! I had so much fun.

Then we decided to take one of the cruises that leave from Navy Pier. In trying to find Navy Pier, we took a wrong turn down a one way street! Now THAT is scary. Bill had the quick reflexes to turn into a parking garage, and we paid through the nose to park there, but it was a great solution to a REALLY huge problem. We walked the mile or so to Navy Pier and took a half hour cruise on a boat that gave us great views of the skyline. Then we walked back to the car and came back to Joliet.

Friday, Jennie and the kids and I went to the Brookfield Zoo, which Dawn talks about in her blog, Because I Said So. It is about half an hour from Jennie's house. We had a great time seeing the monkeys, and the penguins, and a great dolphin show. It's a HUGE zoo!! We had to leave by 3:00, because Marie had a baseball game at 5pm. We all went out for dinner early before the game, and then rushed over there at 5:30 only to find out that big fat raindrops were falling, there was thunder and lightening, and so they decided to cancel the game. We'd gotten rained on at the zoo, but just briefly.

Saturday morning, we got up and packed and checked out of our hotel. We made it out to Shane's baseball game only half an hour late. It was cloudy again, and they got probably 2/3rds of the way through the game before they called it. It had started raining, and I went and sat in the van because I was getting wet. Eventually Bill came over and pulled the van around so we could watch the game from the car. When we were driving back to Jennie's, we stopped off at the UPS store and mailed a box of things that Bill had gotten from their folks's house in Arizona. Lots of old pictures and letters, things like that. It really poured there for awhile, but by the time we got to the UPS Store, the sun had come out! We spent the afternoon at Jennie's, where we spent time visiting. Nancy and Paul, and Paul Jr. were there, as were Bill's dad, of course Jennie and Rick and the kids, and Bill's childhood friend Galen came with his 28-year-old son. How did we get so old?!? Bill said last time he saw Philip, he was only 2!! Time really flies. They were all sitting out on the deck, and I got too hot right in the sun, so I came inside for awhile and watched the kids play Wii, which I have some video of. Even Bill and I played Wii, and Bill and Jennie played Wii tennis. It is really fun!!

We left for Chicago about 6:30 and turned in our rental car. Then we took the shuttle to the Hilton and we were exhausted! We didn't get to bed until 9pm, and we had to be up by 3am! I tossed and turned a lot, as did Bill, so neither of us got much sleep. We got up and checked our luggage and waited for our flight to be called. We had an uneventful flight to Houston, a brief layover and then into Sacramento about 11am. We picked up the car and drove home. We were exhausted! We took naps, and unpacked, and went to bed early! Today we're just doing a few things around the house. Bill is cleaning out our storage so we can get rid of that. What a huge chore!

Well, it's back to work tomorrow. I'll post the montage of our photos later after all the pictures upload. I'll also post the videos I took at the zoo and of Bill's nephew and his friend playing Wii.

Have a great week!