Family Day in Chicago

Family Day in Chicago

This blog post comes to you straight from the park district pool deck.  So, please excuse any typos I may have missed due to fat fingering the on-screen keyboard.

Lounging poolside in a surprisingly up crowded pool for the last forecasted sunny day of summer vacation.
Lounging poolside in a surprisingly uncrowded pool for the last forecasted sunny day of summer vacation.

After five days of fever, coughing up a lung, and general misery, I dragged myself to the doctor. Yep, by all medical assumptions, I likely had walking pneumonia, courtesy of The Girl. She’s so sweet to share with me. One Z-pak later, and I was feeling much better. Man, I don’t know how I managed to put up with feeling like that for the 3 months before my lymphoma diagnosis.

On to good stuff…

Last Thursday, the three of us headed down to the city. We rode the Centennial Wheel at Navy Pier.

The wheel was a bit of a disappointment. It was so smooth that you couldn’t even feel the movement. I swear, I couldn’t tell when we’d reached the top until we were already over it. Kind of a waste of $42 (for the three of us) if you ask me. But, now The Girl can check it off her list.

After the wheel, we had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. My friend, Lisa (who was my babysitter when I was a kid) is a manager there, so she made sure we were taken care of. Thanks, Lisa! None of us had ever been to a Bubba Gump before, so we didn’t realize we’d be quizzed on Forest Gump. Had I known, I would have rewatched the movie. I failed miserably, but they let me eat anyway. I had the grilled shrimp and veggie skewers – sooo good! Hubs couldn’t finish his tempura shrimp, so I ate the last two. I don’t know why I was so hungry. [BTDubs, that little indulgence had me craving fried crap for days. Those shrimp are like a gateway drug! But, I didn’t give in.]

With full bellies, we hopped in an Uber and headed to the Adler Planetarium. We saw a couple shows – one of which the girl thought was a bit babyish. But, let me tell you, when she declared the description of the Big Boom to be wrong wrong wrong, because God made everything, we had quite a grown up discussion afterwards. I posed a series of “what ifs” to her in terms of how I came to reconcile science and the Torah when I was her age. I talked in terms of “some people believe this, and some people believe that, and some people, (like me) believe both can be true. I think our very pragmatic rabbi (coincidentally named Adler) would be happy with how I handled it. At least, I hope so!

Hey - that's me in infrared! Playing with science is fun.
Hey – that’s me in infrared! Playing with science is fun.

We explored some of the exhibits – like ancient sundials and telescopes, and before we knew it, it was 5:00, and we had to head home. It was a great day, and I’m so glad we did it on a Thursday. If you’re going to do city attractions, weekdays are just so much more manageable.

Monday is the first day of school. I can’t believe how the summer has flown by. But, three cheers for getting back to normal schedules, running errands in half the time, working out regularly, and no more My Little Pony marathons!

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