May 2018 – Pilsen, Day 1

Jun 5, 2018

3 min read

I was going to put alllllllll the photos from our latest Chicago trip into one post, but honestly that just seemed like torture. Even to a photo junkie like me. So: I broke it up, you’re welcome. But still refresh your coffee before you read, because it’ll take a bit to get through this one…

We spent the long weekend in Chicago, as we like to do. We timed it so we hit the Northside around lunch hour, and stopped in Logan Square for brunch at our favorite brewpub.

Everything was great, until Linus started tagging the booth whenever he thought we weren’t looking…. ugh.

Found some Tubs work on the walk back to the car…

After some brunch we headed into the City to hit up The Field.

(always a dance party on the walk from the parking garage to the museum…)

Big news at the Field: Sue has been replaced. By Maximo. He is certainly maximum-sized.

They were still assembling him while we were there – he was finished up June 1.

Linus was more impressed with the elephants…

We hit up some new-to-us areas instead of heading straight for the mammals. First up: Native American room.

(pssst you spelled “Menominee” wrong…)

Then visited the Botany area…

Legumes, ::swoooooon

Then the way to Pete’s heart: the geology area.

Moose is obsessed with lava. OBSESSED. He requests to watch Hawaii/lava videos every night. So needless to say, he adored the fake-lava-flow diorama thingie. He kept running away from us in the museum and without fail: this is where we’d find him.

Not the worst view from the dino room…

We found Sue! In her new home off the main dinosaur exhibit, waiting for the fun to be built around her.

After we exhausted the kids in the museum we headed off to check into our airbnb. We stayed in the Pilsen neighborhood this trip. Pilsen became the center of Mexican immigration in the Chicago area in the 1960s. It is currently fighting gentrification to retain its dynamic culture: vibrant murals on all the buildings, store fronts, homes, and streets; the great authentic Mexican food, the friendly people and the many street festivals.

We get to our airbnb… only to find the owner was running late and would be an hour late meeting us to check in. Oh, well. Across the street from the airbnb was the World’s Best Park so we weren’t too put out.

The temps were INSANELY HOT that weekend, highs in the low 90s, which is pretty crazy for this time of year. Thankfully there were lots of treat carts rolling around the neighborhood, because this frozen flavored ice was the Shizz (when he scooped it, it looked like ice cream. Smooooooooooth).

We finally got into our airbnb, threw our bags on our beds and cranked the AC (it was, uh, hot in there), and decided to check out the neighborhood.

There was a street festival a few blocks away, Mole de Mayo, so off we went to see what there was to see.

The kids were grumpy and starving so god bless those street tacos.

My kids love those dancing noodle blow up things. Every time we drive past one they start scream-laughing from the back seat of the car. Needless to say, they were ecstatic to meet this dude.