The boy who refused to sleep and other travel tales

Scott’s been complaining about how often we travel to Chicago. I thought he, like me, missed the city desperately. But I think that he’s just gotten over that emotion and moved on with his life. Now he has a hankering for other travel destinations, and I’m still stuck in the past.

But my other motivation for these trips is that I’m trying to brainwash Devin into believing it’s such a fantastic city that he’ll choose to go to school there someday and we’ll have even more reason to visit.

Diabolical, aren’t I?

So we three had a lovely time. The weather was great for trekking along the concrete. Much better than the hot and humid stuff that the Midwest often serves up this time of year.

Despite the late night the previous evening (3-year-old refused to sleep on the ride from GR, staying awake nearly four hours past his normal bedtime…stinker!), Devin popped up at pretty much the same time as always and was raring to go. But that didn’t last long. He had his fingers in his mouth shortly after breakfast (one of his tired signs) and they stayed there for most of the day.

We visited the Shedd Aquarium in the morning, then walked leisurely back through Grant Park. Then we made a stop at the library and read a few books before boarding the subway and heading north to meet up with Sarah, Cadence and Ted. That’s when Devin finally succumbed to his tiredness and slept for about half and hour on the train.

Berger Park is right on Lake Michigan and the playground is just awesome. Devin and Cadence were all over the place. It was a blast to watch them. So much energy! Although Devin eventually ran out of gas again. He plopped himself right on one of the slides and tried to take a nap.

After the visit, we traveled back to the city and caught dinner at The Elephant and Castle, right near our hotel. Devin managed to stay awake during the train ride, so we assumed he’d be ready to flop right into bed after dinner. He had other ideas, though. It took more than an hour to get him to sleep and pretty much required both of us to go to sleep at 8:00 too.

The next morning we hit West Egg for breakfast then walked to Oak Street Beach, where Devin frolicked in the sand for a while before we traveled along the lakeshore up to Lincoln Park Zoo. After checking out the big ol’ tractor at the farm, we tried out the paddle boats and cruised along the lagoon. Devin helped Scott steer, although I think hindered may be a more accurate description.

We ate lunch, peered at various animals, snacked on ice cream and popcorn, then headed out hoping desperately that Devin would nap in the stroller as we strolled along the streets in my old neighborhood. Once again…no. Every time he looked ready to drop off, he popped right back up. We finally gave up and steered him into The Red Lion and grabbed an early dinner and a couple of drinks.

Then we caught another train back to the city and picked up our car. This time, finally, the kid actually slept. We even had him in bed last night at a decent time. Until the neighbors started shooting off the fireworks. Gah!