A Day with Fish and Dolls

Today we got up early and had breakfast in the lobby of the hotel at the State Street Bread Company, which I personally feel was very over priced and for that price the food was just ok. After eating we grabbed another taxi (which, again, Kylie loved. I am starting to think the taxi rides are going to be her favorite part of this trip) and headed over to Shedd Aquarium. We got there shortly after they opened and got our Total Experience passes which let us explore the entire aquarium, attend one of the 4-D shows, and attend the live aquatic show. The live show was pretty cool and consisted of a four Pacific White-Sided dolphins. Additionally the also showed two different Red Tailed Hawks that also live at the aquarium. We all like a lot of different parts of the aquarium but some of the highlights were the dolphins, the beluga whales (both of which we could see swimming in there tanks below the water through some very large windows). The wild reef exhibit was also really cool and Kylie was really happy to be able to see her saw nosed shark swimming around. The last thing we saw was the Caribbean Reef exhibit, and we got there just in time to see the daily dive show where one of the staff actually was swimming in the tank and feeding the fish while answering questions from the audience and telling us about the fish. The large sea turtle named Nickle that was rescued after getting hit by a boat and the 7 foot moray eel that actually came out of his hole during the presentation and swam around the diver. After we decided we were done at the aquarium (which we feel we completely explored in the almost 7 hours we were there) we went picked up another taxi (and again Kylie was thrilled) and headed back over to the Magnificent Mile, specifically to the American Girl store. We were there specifically for Kylie because she wanted to get Alissa (her doll) her very own school backpack set which we found after asking two different associates (the first told us to look upstairs, after looking for a while the second showed us where it was). Additionally Kylie also got a little surprise from Daddy and Melissa when we decided to also get Alissa a new pet, Sugar, that Kylie had showed interest in. After leaving the store we walked back down Michigan Ave, both because that was the direction of our hotel and because we wanted to see more of what the Magnificent Mile had to offer. Finding dinner tonight proved difficult for multiple reasons; the restaurants along the mile were either on the expensive side or their menus didn’t seem to offer something that all of us could eat. In the end we walked all the way back to the hotel and decided to put everything from the day away and then just eat in the lobby again, this time at their River North lounge. The food there was ok as well, but nothing spectacular, however the prices I felt were more on par with the food and its quality. The one thing I did not like was that the waiter simply stood by our table and kept engaging us in conversation as if he had nothing else to do and we weren’t trying to eat. I guess this may be because for a good portion of the time we were the only ones there, but still at least let us eat. After dinner we went back up to the room to start packing things up so we will be ready to leave in the morning. We will be going from the hotel to the Field Museum and then home from there, so we have to have everything packed and ready to check out in the morning.