Chicago Tourist Date Night

We celebrated our actual anniversary in Michigan, and then we got to enjoy a present from my Mom and Dad of a Double Date to take an architectural boat tour in downtown Chicago.  I had been on a boat tour of Chicago once in summer camp, but none of us had ever done the architectural one!  We were all really looking forward to it, and it did not disappoint!

 We got on board pretty early and picked great seats.  Our guide was really funny, but he also knew his stuff, so we all learned a lot!

 A shot of Navy Pier in the distance

 The boat paused for some photo ops

Of course, I don't remember nearly as much as I'd like to of what we learned, so we'll just have to go again one day!  The weather was beautiful, and we had such a good time doing something special and fun in "our" city :)

 Oh my!  For dinner, we went to a Millie's Supper Club, and it was DELICIOUS!  This is a picture of my beer cheese soup that came with popcorn as a topping!  Everything was so yummy, and we were SO full!

 Our plan was to meet up with Cassie, Jonah, Zoey and Brody at a playground on Thursday and leave for Indianapolis on Friday for a night or two.  BUT, Katie's family got a stomach bug, so for everyone's comfort we had to cancel that stop :(  BUT, it bought us an extra day and night in Evanston because we had already added a last-minute stop in Louisville, KY to our trip home, so we had to wait until that hotel night was scheduled.  It ended up being a blessing in disguise to just have one extra day before packing up the car again :)

A nice, cool, comfy evening at Mimi and Bampa's in their new t-shirts earned from Camp Curiosity: Summer Reading at the Skokie Library!

An EPIC Day at Sleeping Bear Dunes!

Scott was lucky enough to land a great job as a pilot for United, BUT that means a slightly unpredictable schedule.  We went ahead and planned this trip knowing he might only make it for part of it or not at all.  Well, he was able to make the drive with Brandi and the kids, stay for one whole day, and then head back to IL the next afternoon.  We take what we can get!  Even though none of us really wanted to get back in the car after driving from IL to MI the day before, we really wanted to visit Sleeping Bear Dunes while Scott was with us (for his extra hands and because it's fun)!  So, we loaded up and made the hour and a half drive to the dunes.  It took a big of work to decide where to get started, but we decided to start with a family-friendly hike: Empire Bluff Trail.  This was just right for our crew!  About a mile and a half round-trip with a beautiful overlook and good snack stop halfway :)

Snack Break!

Family photo op 

After we got back to the cars, we headed toward a beach area to have a picnic lunch and let the kids play on the beach and in the water.  This was a nice break :)

THEN, we headed to THE Dunes!  I wasn't really thinking I was going to run all the way up, but the excitement got the better of me and we all headed for the top!  Well, except for Ellie and Molly who made wise decisions to nap in the car.  Brandi and Scott took turns staying with them and climbing.  I really saw the difference between grown-up minds and kid minds during this activity: I knew that this wasn't really that fun, BUT I'd be really glad I did it and got to see the views and how far I climbed.  The kids just were tired!  LOL  There was no looking ahead for them.  They did pretty awesome, in spite of themselves!  

This picture is taken from the second landing area, or level, looking towards where we started.

Strong Kids!

This little spot of shade was a break spot to look forward to on the way up and down!

These four... Love them!

And, this is the last bit that Josh summitted on his own!  LOL

Such a fun family adventure on the eve of our 12th wedding anniversary!!!

Once we were back at the bottom everyone was ready for some sitting, water and snacks!  There was this really cute photo op all set up for visitors, but Graham was obviously NOT impressed!  After bathroom breaks and waterbottle refills, we selected a very friendly activity of the scenic drive!  LOL  Graham napped most of the way through this, which was just fine.

Stop #1

Stop #2

I don't know what number this was, but just Mommy and Jackson got out

SUCH beautiful views!

We had a great plan to eat in Traverse City before driving back to the house, but the wait was REALLY long!  We were impressed with how long the kids had hung in there so far, so we didn't want to try waiting for a seat at a restaurant...  Brandi and Scott researched and found this gem: The Filling Station  Pizzas and flights of beer were ordered!  We chose the outdoor seating at oversized picnic tables, and they were right along a no longer used railroad.  There was lots to look at AND there were several sandboxes for the kids to play in!

Pretty view at dinner

These two were really cute walking at sunset on the rails :)

The kids did SO amazing!  We are really glad we snuck in this fun-filled day...and really glad we don't have much planned for the next day--LOL

Alaskan Cruise: Last Day

We got up in time to have one last breakfast at Garden Café.  It was so sad since we knew they were going to have a whole new group of passengers on board in just a few hours.  That was us a week ago :(  We were in no hurry to get off of the boat, so we took our time eating and getting down to the reception area.  We disembarked, retrieved our luggage, said good-bye to Larry and Michelle, checked our luggage at a hold area, and took off towards Pike Place for a ltitle more sightseeing.  Mom and Dad hung out and people-watched while we did one more run through the Market.  We ended up heading back to pick up our bags and find a taxi sooner than later.  That was just fine since the airport with four adults is no big deal compared to the airport with two children ;)  We ate lunch in the airport and were lucky enough to get seats all together in the exit rows!  Hurray!  

Alaskan Cruise Day 7: Victoria, British Columbia CANADA

This day was definitely different in that we didn’t dock in Victoria until 2:30!  We slept in a bit, but I didn’t want to sleep away more time on the ship!  We ate breakfast at O’Sheehans and then ended up meeting everyone else in the lobby.  I was trying to get some various questions answered at the front desk, and there happened to be a really good band playing in the front lobby, so Mom, Dad and Josh got a table there to relax and listen.  I headed back to our room to get as much packing done as possible before joining them to read/listen to music.  We met Mom and Dad at Topsiders for lunch and ate near the pool.  We were anxious to get off the boat right away, and as we were deboarding, Michelle and Larry called out to us.  They were hoping to find us and hang out with us as we explored the city.  Josh explained his plan to geocache around Victoria and some of the things we would see, and they were game, so off we went!  

We started off right by the pier by walking along The Unity Wall out to the lighthouse for a pretty view.  

On the way back, we ducked down to walk right along the water on the rocks.  

From there we walked up to a park area for a couple of geocaches and to walk over to the Terry Fox Memorial.  This is a really cool story, so you should click the link and read about it.  

Josh had a geocache at St. Ann's Schoolhouse, which was a cute old schoolhouse with pretty good history.  

We wandered through parts of Beacon Hill Park which included seeing a cool sundial, beautiful rose gardens, the Victoria Lawn Bowling Club and a really cute pond with different obstacles for radio-control boats!  

We really got into the downtown area next, and we walked through some neat art fair stalls and street performers on our way to see Empress Hotel and the British Columbia Parliament building.  Both of these were beautiful buildings!  

Victoria is famous for its gardens and hanging baskets around the city—everything was gorgeous!  

We stopped at a really cute coffee shop because the owner had a cache hidden INSIDE the shop!  It was a perfect stop for a smoothie snack and a little free wi-fi J 

 We took a break for a bit of souvenir shopping...

 ...and posing with some fun Canadian friends :)

   We began walking around the Inner Harbor, which was really pretty.   

 Jackson's Ice Cream Shop!

 It ended at Victoria's Fisherman's Wharf which was a cute area to walk around, but it included Float Home Village.  This is a village of houseboats!   

 Some of them were SO adorable!  It was really fun wandering up and down the docks checking out the cute decorations. 

 Check out the adorable mini-double-decker bus!

 We headed back to the ship around 8pm, and we really felt like we got a nice tour of the city.  It was beautiful, and we would love to go back to visit!  Mom and Dad were already on board, so we regrouped and met for dinner at Azura.  It was a late dinner, so we hurried back to our rooms to get our luggage out (the suitcases were picked up before midnight so they were ready for pick-up in the morning).  Then we met back up for one last night of relaxing and game-playing in O’Sheehans.  

Our last towel friend: Mouse!