Bean, Rainforest Cafe and Shedd Aquarium

For Brenda. I am so flattered that you read this! See you this weekend!
Yesterday evening we walked to "The Bean" at Mellenium Park, where we were supposed to go with my new friend Sarah when I accidentally walked us to the zoo. She stayed all day at the zoo yesterday and after seeing the bean today was so thankful for my mistake!
The Bean is a huge mirrored sculpture that refects the Chicago skyline.  My kids LOVE their reflection so they kind of enjoyed it! Inside the bean looking up made the coolest crazy relfection. Myer, Beckett and I all walked directly into the Bean like a bird would a window. Now one else did. Must be genetic. Myer blacked his eye on it even!
After that we walked to the Rainforest Cafe. I know they have those lots of places, but this was our first time at one. It reminded me a little bit of going to Casa Bonita as a kid. The kids liked it and we had a fun time!
The kids got up 4-something AM again. Ugh! After breakfast Sarah and her 4 kids and the kids and I headed by foot 3 miles away to the Shedd Aquarium. It is on Lake Michigan and had great views of beautiful sail boats. It was sooo dark and sooo crowded with school groups and we had 7 kids 7 and under and at one point I considered drowning myself in the penguin habitat. It was crazy, but luckily the dolphins redeemed the aquarium and I LOVED watching them!  The kids stood and watched them for a long time. Without the crowds the aqarium would have been amazing. We paid the cheapest entrance ($8 for adults, $6 for kids) and we didn't realize it at the time but all the cool stuff like dolphins and sea lions were not included. Luckily we had already seen it all when we realized! We never saw the beluga whales which is a bummer but we tried our best. I had to watch Sarah's baby Sadie at one point while she took her other 3 potty and It reminded me how much I don't enjoy taking babies to aquariums.
It was fun having a mom friend to do stuff with in Chicago.