Our last day of vacation

Day 8 : Chicago

Our plan was to spend the morning in Chicago and then drive back home. As we sat in Fox and Obel, enjoying a sumptuous breakfast, David said, "You know, it seems kind of crazy to drive back today when we could stay another day in Chicago, see the Independence Eve fireworks, and drive home tomorrow." Hmmmm. It didn't take us too long to decide to extend our vacation another day!

We walked over to Navy Pier where we hoped to recreate some photos of Cameron playing in the fountain. First, here are a few photos of Cameron at the fountain at age 18 months.

In the first, he is signing "wet."

And here is Cameron at 3 1/2 years - again signing "wet"!

We walked down Navy Pier and Cameron was absolutely astounded by the funny mirrors. He spent about 20 minutes jumping up in down in front of them and laughing hysterically.

Cameron was actually the one to suggest that we visit the Children's Museum and kudos to him for a great idea! We spent the whole afternoon there. Cameron's favorite activity by far was the water area, where he managed to get completely drenched despite his raincoat.

In the evening, we walked around Chicago with our fantastic tour guide, Stacy, and watched the throngs of Indepedence Eve revelers. Stacy took some incredible photos of Cameron (which I will post when I get them from him!) and was also approached by tons of people who asked him to take their photo. Sounds weird, right? I mean, no one has ever asked me to take a photo of them with MY camera! I think the large camera bag, the impressive camera and the ID badge Stacy was wearing had more than one person thinking he was part of the press! I even heard one of his subjects say to a friend, "We're probably going to be in a magazine!" No, but maybe on my blog . . .

Before the fireworks started, we walked back to Stacy's where we could actually see the display from his 51st floor window. Now THAT, my friends, is the way to celebrate 4th of July. It was an awesome way to end our vacation!

Day 9: Chicago to Cinci

We woke up super early, but our plans to get on the road were foiled by technology. At 5:45am, David went down to get the car from the garage. When he hadn't returned by 6:15am, I was fairly certain that he had been accosted by parking lot bandits. A few minutes later, to my immense relief, he appeared in the doorway unharmed. Turns out the automated machine that you pay had eaten his credit card! After much effort, he had retrieved it. I won't bore you with the details of our long car ride. Suffice it to say that there was plenty of coffee and an ever-exciting viewing of "Rescue Heroes -- The Movie" as well as other assorted DVDs. Can't complain about technology too much, I guess, even if it does occasionally try to take your MasterCard . . .