Old Fashion Family Road Trip - Part 2

Chicago - the new hometown of my best buddy Poppy. Visiting Poppy and her family were a major reason we decided to take our road trip in the first place, so our stop in Chicago was definitely a highlight. From the minute we arrived, Poppy and I were up to our old shenanigans. The picture on the right is of me and Poppy barricading her older sister Hazel into the bathroom so she couldn't get out after her shower. We giggled the whole time.
We toured the sites, including stepping into the Plexiglas box on the top floor of Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower). You can look 110 floors down onto the street, right under your feet. Gates, my mom, and I thought it was awesome...my dad did not. He nervously smiled at my mom, said something about feeling the building sway, told her to hurry up and get the photo, and got off the Plexiglas as fast as he could. The guy before us did push ups in the box. Meanwhile, I stuck around for some jumping photos - I think that made his stomach queasy. For being so uneasy, he faked a pretty good smile in our picture.

Then we rented an EIGHT seater pedi-bike with the Hickmans. Four peddlers, four passengers - including me and Poppy in a goofy front basket and Gates ON my dad's knee, and away we went. We were a definite freak show for locals and other tourists to point and gawk at, but man, it was fun. Trying to get this 1,000+ pound beast up the littlest hill was a near miracle. So me and the other kids started chanting "Be Aggressive, Be Be Aggressive!" to help encourage our parents. This, of course, attracted more pointing and laughing by onlookers and we absolutely loved it. I'm proud to say that our chant - and our parents muscles - avoided us from having to get out and push.

From Chicago we headed on to Wisconsin and found one of the most fun towns in America - Wisconsin Dells. How did we not know this wacky tourist trap existed? We looked it up and found out it is the waterslide capital of the world - we are DEFINTELY coming back in the summertime. Now how can I describe Wisconsin Dells...hmm...think of the ultimate cheesy tourist trap locations - like Madam Tussaud's Wax Museum - and multiply it by 50 and sprinkle gigantic waterparks in between - THAT is Wisconsin Dells. Crazy, tourist fun! We stopped to play mini golf at Captain Jack's and visited the Upside down White House (no joke, that's a real attraction!).

 

From Wisconsin it was on to Minnesota. This was a highlight stop for my mom - she keeps talking about the 55' Jolly Green Giant we stopped to photo with in Blue Earth, Minnesota. With just over 3000 people in their town, the giant is clearly a source of town pride. They are also home to the ice cream sandwich. Sadly, we didn't learn that fact until AFTER we left or we would have partook in that source of pride as well!

We did fill on at El Tio, a terrific little local Mexican restaurant while we were there. Definitely worth a stop if you find yourself in Blue Earth.

After Minnesota we headed for South Dakota. We'll highlight that portion of our trip in Part 3 of our blog. Stay tuned...