Chicago! Chicago!

Ready to load the bus and head for Chicago! 5:00 PM on Wednesday. We had 44 kids & 9 chaperons & a bus driver & a tour guide.

Most all of the kids reported that going to see Blue Man Group the last stop before heading home on Saturday was the high light of their trip! They got to get pics taken with them afterwards too! But the Blue Men never spoke a word!

They performed at Chestnut Square - a Senior Living Center - and the choir really got into their songs!

A view from the top - of the band at the Chestnut Square performance! Colby on the sax in the 2nd row there.

Kayla, Colby, & Molly at the entrance to the Lincoln Park Zoo - right in downtown Chicago!

Colby & Kayla in front of the big, scary lions!!!

Molly, Colby, Kayla, & Brittany pose with the less threatening apes outside of their display!

Later we visited the Shedd Aquarium & saw some really awesome, bright fish, etc!

I didn't know that starfish could be so pretty!

A BUNCH of us ate at Ed Debevic's downtown one afternoon - it was a fun experience! The waitress was real load & rude (in a fun way!) - threw our straws at us when she brought our drinks, etc.

There was a few hours to roam the streets of downtown Chicago - to do some shopping. All of the kids had to stay with a chaperon at all times so this is my group & they wanted to be sure to walk into Bloomingdales, as they had heard of it in big cities! So here they are under the sign! (Colby is clear on the right)

Jeff & Colby outline the posters of the city of Chicago as we wind our way to the security check at the Sears Tower. We heard it is changing it's name though - to the Willis Tower (I think that is right!) because it has been sold.

The elevators at the Sears Tower go SO FAST! We went up 99 floors in 52 seconds! So there are distractions in them - like mirrored ceilings (this is the kids looking up at the ceiling!) and a little movie with some animated birds talking about something! I was too busy trying to capture the kids having fun in there to notice the movie too much!

Colby - on top of Chicago!

A view from the top! (And on a clear day too!!!!)

The band performed at the Field Museum - in the same big 'hall' that "Sue" the dinosaur is displayed! So the museum people had the kids pose for a pic by Sue since we are her close neighbors!

A close up of some of the band. (It was fun to be able to get pics of players other than the front row for once - by being able to be up above them!)

This is the 'Hall' that we played in! Gigantic!!!! The band is playing here on the right under the yellow & red flags! This is Sue here in the foreground.

Another shot showing how large the room was! That's the band right in front there.

The Philip High School Band performing at the famous Field Museum in Chicago!

Colby outside the Rain Forest Cafe in downtown Chicago

Colby & Bethany wash their hands in the Rainforest Cafe bathroom - look at the paint job even in the bathroom!!!

My kids in Chicago! Kayla, Molly, Colby, Deb, Sierra, & Andrew. What a good group of kids to be responsible for!

Colby & Abby riding the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier! Many of us did that & it was great! What a view! I have lots of pics from that ride!

Kayla, Molly, & Colby at the Medieval Times dinner theater. We were given these paper crowns as we walked in the door to wear all night. We ate off the metal plates & drank out of metal mugs - we had no silverware so ate it all with our hands - even the soup we had to drink out of the bowl! All as we watched the "Knights" perform on their horses in the area right in front of us! It was pretty cool!

All in all it was an awesome trip! The kids were all very well behaved and got along great! We were told after a performance that everyone there was saying that "This is what American kids should all be like!" So quite a compliment to our kids & community! We left on Wed. at 5:00 PM and got back to our school at 9:30 AM on Sunday - so spent 2 entire nights traveling on the bus (that got kind of long, but nobody complained - drove thru some very snowy, icy roads as we left Chicago, but thank goodness that didn't last more than a few hours!) We had a great tour guide that was fun to have with us for the 4 days!

So ... that was Chicago for us! (I posted about 200 pics in albums on my facebook page if you are looking at this & would like to see a bunch more! I did that so the kids can copy whatever they want for their own use! I actually took over 500 though!)

Deb