Sabbatical Roadtrip Day 17-19

Despite the long boring drive to Chicago our trip there was quite an adventure! After checking into the hotel we called my cousin Erin and made plans for Chicago Deep Dish pizza. We met downtown and were walking around the block just killing time. I had a bottled water from the hotel and took a drink, then offered it to my 7 yr old. He took a drink and handed it back to me. What I didn't realize is that he also took that little plastic ring off the top of the water bottle and pinched it in half and shoved it in the water bottle. I was busy talking with Erin and took a swig only to find that there was something in my mouth and it began to clog my throat. I was trying to figure out if I should swallow whatever was in there (a piece of paper maybe?) but decided to try and fish it out with my finger instead. I couldn't get it so I tried again to swallow it only making it lodge in my throat more. By this time Ken started whacking me on the back. I finally got more aggressive with my finger down my throat and almost gagged myself before I hooked the little plastic ring with my finger nail. It was a bit traumatic for me and had to sit in the middle of the sidewalk and spit up blood for a bit from scratching my throat pretty good. Thankful our bodies heal quickly! And then we went to deep dish pizza. The boys turned out to not be big fans of this unique style of pizza. We are glad we tried it though. I thought it was quite tasty. We went to bed early that night and woke up with a big agenda! We visited the 360 Chicago Observation Deck (which I thought was the Sears Tower, but is really the John Hancock Tower). It was still a very cool experience and we were the first visitors that day! It was amazing to see the whole city from that high up. We saw there was a beach nearby and decided that would be our next stop. After a quick dip of our toes we made our way to the Subway and took it South to Millennium Park to snap a few photos at the giant Silver Bean. Instead of hoping back on the Subway (which I wish we would have done) we walked almost 2 miles to the Adler Planetarium. It was a long walk and it's muggy in Chicago! We didn't realize that all of Chicago planned to be at the Planetarium for the Solar Eclipse viewing so by the time we got there they were at capacity and not letting anyone in the building. Plan B was the Field Museum just a block away and our OMSI card provided FREE tickets! We did experience the solar eclipse from the field museum lawn but I must say it was anti-climatic. From pictures it looks like the viewing in Portland was a completely different experience! The skies were a little darker and the humidity went down, but with only 87% it was still pretty bright out. We spent a few hours at the museum and got to see a great dinosaur exhibit. Then we made the trek back North to meet Erin at the Subway station. Our dogs were tired! We took the subway out to the White Sox field and made it to the game just in time. Another very busy day!