Our Spring Break

The week Nate and I had so patiently been waiting for finally arrived! It is a teacher's favorite time of the year...SPRING BREAK!! Now some people decide to stay home and do some spring cleaning, some decide to go to warm tropical places (like my mom, dad, and sister), and then some decide to get away for a couple of days, hoping to escape a bit of cold and the work that should be done during break.

What did we decide to do for spring break? Well, I really wanted to fly some place warm and lay on a beach all week and read book after book, but I couldn't make up my mind on where to go. After much debate we decided to travel to the windy city of Chicago for a couple of days.

So how did we get there? With gas prices so high and parking in Chicago very expensive, we decided to take the commuter train out of Michigan City. It is a cheap way to get there and you avoid the massive headache of driving around Chicago, draining your wallet of money to park every night. Our hotel was about a mile from the train station and the weather was gorgeous on Sunday, so we were able to sit in a park, read, get a little sun on our cheeks, and then begin the hike to our hotel.

Monday's Activities: A visit to Shedd's Aquarium with hundreds of kids on field trips with their schools. I think every school in Chicago was at every museum we went to! We felt like we were back in the classroom! This is the dolphin show that we attended. It was a beautiful sunny day and you can see the view of Lake Michigan.

Monday was such a beautiful day in Chicago. We even took our coats off outside while we were walking to Shedd's Aquarium. I can't wait for spring's nice weather to stick around!

After our visit to Shedd's Aquarium we walked along the shore of Lake Michigan to our next destination...Adler Planetarium. Nate being the science guy was pretty excited! Here he is acting like one of his seventh grade students. We were waiting for a 3-D space movie. My husband is such a kid!
Monday evening we headed to the Hancock Observatory. It was a beautiful evening to see the many lights of Chicago.

Here I am on the outside deck of the Hancock. It was really windy and really cold. I wasn't too excited to go out there, but Nate thought it would be fun.

Do you know what Nate wants to do after he retires from teaching? I think he mentioned that he would like to wash the windows of the Hancock. Good job Nate, but I think you missed a spot!

Tuesday's Activities: A trip to the Field Museum with more kids on field trips! Oh my goodness! Oh well, we still had a lot of fun exploring. Nate enjoyed the exhibits especially the one on "What is an Animal?" It went a long with what he is teaching in science.

What does every child do when they get back to school after spring break? Bring pictures for Show and Tell about what they did that week. So being a teacher, and kind of like a big kid, I had my picture taken with a dinosaur because my kids love dinosaurs! I even got some pictures of this really huge anaconda. My kids know how much I had snakes, so I just had to be brave and take the pictures.
After we were through with the Field Museum I took a picture of Nate by Soldier Field. I guess that is where the Chicago Bears play.

Here is a picture of Nate waiting for the bus. I think he was a little tired after all of the museum stuff we did over our couple of days in Chicago. I know I was! Our last night in Chicago was fun! As a thank you to Nate for taking me to Chicago I took him for dinner at a place where men like to go...ESPN Zone. He loves sports and big screen TVs so what better to do than combine the two and eat a nice meal. What a fun time!

This year's spring break was a lot of fun. I love spending time with Nate and getting to travel to different places together. The only bad thing is, it's hard to get pictures of the two of us together. Oh well!