Planet Wilder

Drew’s plane landed an hour early. But we were there. Everybody was very excited and Emma recognized dad right away. Drew held her and she came to him just like that. Drew had to in-process and each time he dissappeared Emma became anxious and would run around looking for him. She looked perplexed and everybody wanted to help her find daddy. Paperwork were done and Emma got her daddy.

Now that Drew’s home it’s time to plan our vacation. The location and the hotel’s been located it was all a matter of deciding when and where exactly to stay and visit in Chicago. We wanted to stay at the Drake hotel but that hotel was booked. Our next choice was the Rennessaince and hotel Monaco but they were also full. Not totally booked but we weren’t ready to spend $300/day. So it was between the Palmer House Hilton, Hyatt, and the Amalfi. We thought the Amalfi will be great, it’s smaller and it’s a boutique-ish kind of hotel.

The Amalfi was perfect. We got a room with a view and Emma loves that! The hotel was very close to a lot of great restaurants and within walking distance of everything if you really want to. Every evening they had social hour and Emma loves it. We’d go up every evening to get some drinks and appetizers. Except for the first day we always take our food to our room but while I’m grabbing food Emma would go on the couch or chair and sit there to socialize. Of course everybody had to stop and great her.

Food was excellent. We had Indian the first night, steak the second (best steak at the Sullivan’s Drew said), Grand Lux Cafe the third night, and Thai the last night. All that was within 5 minutes of walking from our hotel.

Besides chowing down we visited the Science Museum to see Body Worlds, the Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, the Hancock building and we looked at the many great architecture of Chicago. We also got a chance to attend a jazz festival. That was really nice and Emma enjoyed it quit a bit. She was dancing and snapping her fingers to the tune. We didn’t do a lot of shopping. We didn’t go there for shopping but if I were to go there again for that purpose I’d surely have a great time. Everything from Old Navy to Luis Vuitton was there.

We had a great time. Emma has some tempers but I guess that happens when you’re in a hotel room with not too many toys. She was good for the most part, just the last few days she went crazy. It made mom and dad crazy too!!!

So that was our vacation. We did more but that’s the summary of it.