We spent the day exploring the city. We did a lot of walking around checking out all of the local tourist stops. The Chicago skyline is spectacular.
We enjoyed some delicious deep dish pizza at Giordano's. This was our favorite pizza of the trip.
We walked off our pizza visiting nearby sites and taking fun pictures.
The Bean.
The Crown Fountain was a fun stop as well.
Of course, a stop at the Nutella Cafe' was a must do. We ate outside, and it started to sprinkle on us a bit, but thankfully it didn't last long
We walked over to the Buckingham Fountain.
We drove about 45 minutes over to Indiana to visit the Indiana Dunes National Park. We always try to squeeze in a National Park when we can.
This was not the type of lakefront that we are used to. We were headed on a sunset hike, so we didn't have great shoes for walking at the water's edge. The lake bottom was rocks. Not rocks here or there, but solid rocks, and it was painful to walk on barefoot. My water-loving Macy didn't let that stop her from wading out.
The water was super chilly, so this is about all we got of these two getting in the water. They are like their mama and less likely to want to be in the water fully dressed, especially if it also requires walking painfully on rocks.
On a lakefront full of rocks there are plenty of rocks to choose from to practice skipping rocks. We don't get the opportunity to do this often, so we enjoyed a little fun seeing if we could beat Marc with the number of skips.
Rainbow rocks - so fun!
We took a ranger-led sunset hike up the sand dune. It was different hiking up sand, but it wasn't too challenging. It was a cloudy evening, so we didn't get to see a big sunset, but we learned a lot. We've only had one negative experience with a park ranger. They are all so nice, helpful, and accommodating for kids.
This girl tries to have fun wherever she goes. I love that about her. She's always thinking outside of the box.
