I get asked fairly often by friends who are planning a trip to Chicago...."What should we see? What can we do that's free or cheap?"  I was writing an email to some friends this morning to answer that question and it turned into a blog down memory lane.

On a date in Chicago. September 2008

You can spend a whole day doing the free stuff in Chicago:



Navy Pier.  It used to be the Navy base.   The main building has been turned into a sortof long mall with attractions.  There is lots of shopping, things to see, food to buy, and a nice walk outside along the water.  Outside there are rides, including a ferris wheel that is beautiful at night.  We often park at Navy Pier then ride the busses & subway around town (the busses stop right outside the Navy Pier main doors - to the right)







IMPORTANT PARKING/TRANSPORTATION NOTE:  Expect to pay at least $20-$30 for parking anywhere (driving around doesn't find you anything cheaper.  Many of the garages look cheaper because they post their "early bird" prices at the entrance.  But when you pull in you realize they're just as expensive.  And don't expect to find street parking.  Chicago is like a second (or third) home to us and I don't think we've EVER found street parking.  Seriously.  That is why we park one place and ride the bus or subway around for the day.  Besides, you wouldn't want to fight traffic driving around downtown and pay for re-parking.  The bus/subway (CTA) pass is great, because you can just hop on and off wherever you want.  And the drivers are helpful if you don't have a clue what you're doing.

You can get a CTA bus/subway pass at Osco or Walgreens drug stores.  There is a Walgreens very close to Navy Pier.  David walks there to buy the passes.  A 1-day CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) pass is $5.75 for unlimited rides on busses and subway all day.  They also have passes for more days if you're staying longer.  You can buy these online, but we usually don't plan that far in advance.  They can take up to 10 days to arrive in the mail.  If you are planning enough in advance for a trip, it would be very helpful to have your passes in advance.  Don't forget to pick up a bus schedule or subway map.  If you're overwhelmed at first, just ask someone for help.  There are people everywhere.

The busses were nearly empty on Christmas Eve!

We love the Subway

Clarification about the trains:  "Metra" is the train system that brings people in from the suburbs.  It only goes to Union Station. If you see "CTA" it refers to the busses and subway system downtown.  The subway is also referred to as the "L" - as in elevated subway.  This is still the CTA subway, it just goes above ground part of the time so they call it the "L".  Those terms were confusing to me for awhile.  If you're big-city-brave and want to experience something new, you can park in one of the free Metra stations somewhere in the suburbs and ride the double-decker train into the city. You would end up at Union Station.  Then you would purchase a CTA pass there to get around downtown.  We have enjoyed doing this for different reasons:  when we have stayed in a hotel in the suburbs, coming in from David's school is north of Chicago, and just to give the kids the experience of riding the double decker Metra train.  It's pretty cool.

Waiting at the train station for Metra to take us into the city. October 2008

Watching the view from the train - on the way into the city from the northern suburbs

Riding the double decker train into the city. September 2008

Enough about transportation.....On to more FREE STUFF:


Cloud Gate....affectionately known around the world as "The Bean"  (It's in Millenium park. Nothing major to do at the bean, but it is cool and a classic "Chicago" work of art.  It is definitely worth seeing and a great photo op.  (In the winter they have ice skating.)

David and Caiden bravely holding up the bean....with astounded stranger boy looking on in awe.

 Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago - Closed on Mondays.  "Suggested" admission of $12.   We went in free - don't know if they've changed that and make you pay now.  It's really a neat museum.  We laughed at a lot of what we saw ( I don't have a whole lot of respect for a lot of Contemporary art's ideas), but it was fun.

There is a beautiful farmer's sidewalk market right outside of the Museum of Contemporary Art

World's Tallest Church Building - The First United Methodist Church of Chicago.  Called the "skyscraper church."  Not the world's tallest church, mind you.  That church is in Ulm, Germany. (Not sure what the difference is between the world's tallest Church and the world's tallest Church Building.  But this one is tall.  I promise. 



The Magnificent Mile - It's not quite as defined as it sounds...You probably won't stop and say "Oh!  This must be the magnificent mile!"   It's basically a long stretch of expensively wonderful window shopping along Michigan Avenue.  It is truly a beautiful sight at Christmas with all the lights.  We prefer to focus our attention around the Water Tower area.




Water Tower Place - This is one of the central places downtown. The Water Tower itself is actually just a tower in the middle of the road, but the stores and restaurants around it are great.   There is also great shopping (window shopping, for us!) in the Water Tower Place mall.

Inside Water Place, you will find the American Girl Place and the Lego Store  This is a regular small-but-cool Lego store - and not to be confused with the larger Legoland Discovery Center

An example of the amazing Lego creations at the Lego Store @ Water Tower Place. Mind-boggling!

American Girl Place 2008.  There is an expensive tea room, but it's out of our league. : ) We usually share a low-dollar treat from the treat shop right outside the tea room.

Palmer House Hotel - This may not mean anything to you unless you enjoy Fry Family history and fancy hotels. : )  This is the hotel where Grandpa Fry was  bellboy when he left home and went to Chicago to get a job at about 15 years of age.  It's just a gorgeously elegant place - worth seeing.

Lincoln Park Zoo - March 2010

Christmas Eve with David's family.  2010

skyline - 2011

Caiden Catching Chicago snowflakes on his tongue - Christmas Eve

Kayla eats a hot schnitzel at Christkindlmarket,  December 2011

Water Tower Place - Dec. 2010

Yesterday morning I was switching a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer.  It was another good morning, without chaos.  It was about 7 am and my kids were upstairs, dressed and fed (or feeding) and happily making posters for the upcoming student council election at school.

And a moment washed over me.  I knew getting that load of laundry switched over in the morning was a good thing, the kind of thing that keeps a house running.  And it feels good, this feeling of being on top of the laundry.   But then a bit of sadness hit me.

I remember realizing that my mom just didn't seem to struggle with keeping up with laundry.  She went down to the lowest of 4 levels in our huge, gorgeous, tidy home each morning and put a load in, just as easy as breathing (it seems).  She had us fold clothes and match socks together on her bed.  She made us re-use towels more than once and not put our clothes in the laundry if they weren't really dirty.  I have felt sad, before, in moments of being buried under mountains of multi-toddler laundry, that even though I try to do all that, I wasn't quite so with it.  How did she do it so effortlessly and why am I such a doofus?



And although I feel more in control of the laundry situation in my life right now (thanks to a double capacity washer and a load-a-day effort), I still get behind.  Sometimes WAY behind.  All it takes is a couple of back-to-back trips out of town or a few days of pregnancy nausea and exhaustion and before you know it, no one has clean socks and the basement laundry sorter is overflowing.  But it's okay.  Really okay!   I always catch up. (It took me 2 major laundry days this week, but my family once again has clean socks.)


And I just had this moment of giving myself an "it's okay" hug.  And I wanted to give you one, too.  I'm silly and pregnant, but I'm crying now as I write it.  Because it's so easy to beat ourselves up over so many things.  I don't just mean the silly Pinterest-Perfection craze.  I mean regular, every-day, important stuff that we sometimes just don't get done or do wrong.  I had one of those moments this morning as I put baggies of unhealthy corn chips into lunch boxes.....  "Stupid, empty calories.  Not an ounce of nutrition.  I wish I could send carrot sticks and pita/hummus wedges and have lunch pails come home empty.  What have I done wrong?  How could I work so hard and still be such a failure?"

That's the kind of beating-up we sometimes do to ourselves.

And that's why I want to give us all a hug.  It's okay if we don't always keep up.  It's okay if our kids occasionally have to wear dirty socks while we catch up on laundry.  Or (heaven forbid) we send Koolaid and Twinkies in their lunches because we didn't quite get the whole-wheat-zucchini brownies made this week.


All of us are getting at least some things right.

And this is a season.

And it doesn't really matter about that mother of 7 you know whose house looks like a magazine and kids look like models.  She's not you!  She's certainly not me.  But the me that I am is working hard and getting the important things right (at least some of the time.)  And as my kids get a little older and I no longer have multiple toddlers and am enjoying some longer stretches of time to get things done, I realize that this is always going to be a big job, but that someday (like they all say) these little feet will move to bigger places.  And they won't care how perfect I was.  They will care how happy and present I was.



Heaven forbid that I harshly criticize another mom for what she does or doesn't do with her home or kids.  She is learning just like me.  Balancing and failing and growing.  And I hope you never hear me apologize if one of my online pictures has a basket of laundry in it.  My world has laundry.  Always.  Deal with it.

I am trying to accept the fact that it's okay that life brings cycles of order and chaos.  And almost never has times when it's all order and no chaos..there is usually a bit of both going on.

I want to spend less energy feeling sad about what isn't perfect and more energy just enjoying the days and accepting the growth and constant-ness of it all.  I don't want to (emotionally) waste these years worrying and fretting and feeling like a failure.  I want to look back and remember that I cherished the playdoh and kisses and stories and projects and meals with a table surrounded with little faces. 

So I'm just reminding myself that it's okay.  And we are doing a good job!  For some reason we don't hear it very often - I think we mostly hear the messages we conjure ourselves from the very un-real images that bombard us online.  (Closets so organized that there are only 2 colors of coordinated clothes in the whole closet?  Really?!)  Or we hear criticism or disapproval ringing in our memory/imagination.  Or we hear our own voices criticizing ourselves.

But I just wanted to say to myself - and to us - that I think we're doing okay.  And we should relax and enjoy it.  That's all.

I've decided to post some of my parent communication letters that I send home with my students.  There are a lot of music moms out there...and that's not an easy job!

I come to you as a student, a teacher, and mostly a mom.  I’m there with you and face the daily responsibility of my kids’ practice.  For us, this adventure is as much about raising disciplined kids as it is about music.  Probably even more.  May we all simply amaze ourselves this semester! : )

http://the-byronic-phag.tumblr.com/post/30315090955/just-a-few-more-weeks-ive-been-waiting-so