I believe I mentioned in a previous post that the Wednesday night we arrived in Chicago, the Black Hawks won the Stanley Cup. We heard through the grapevine that a big parade was scheduled for Friday to celebrate the team, etc. I heard parade and thought...floats, cars, you know, some balloons. What I failed to understand is that there are quite a few hockey fans in the city, and I think every one of them skipped work that day to attend this parade. Which happened to take place right around the corner from our hotel. So. We woke up Friday morning (not too early, since we'd been up after 1 the previous morning) to see the following sights out our hotel window (taken looking down from my window):

Kyle said there were people out when he left for work at 7.

I later heard on the news that people had been out since 4am.

They looked like buzzing bees. Buzzing red bees.

Looking down on this sight, my first thought was: I know there was a flower bed right where they are standing. Yep. Next day, I checked and it was toast. Smushed flat.

It was as though all the cross streets emptied out their fans onto Wacker. What was really bizarre was watching the parade on the news and hearing real-time all the action right outside my hotel. Surreal.

The boats kept milling about trying to see the action while the cop boat kept shooing them away. Kind of funny to watch.

What this picture doesn't capture, but I wish it did is the scene which unfolded immediately after August uneventfully slid down the pole. The boy directly behind August was obviously excited, all decked out in the fireman apparel, but made one critical error. He had apparently never given much thought to his technique in pole sliding.

When August had safely cleared the landing pad, this young guy LAUNCHED himself with all he had at the pole. Yeah, you can probably see it in your head. He smacked headfirst into the pole and then sort of banged and clanked his way down to the pad. Never got his leg or arm around the pole. Just clattered his way to the ground.

There was a stunned silence in the room as we all just watched it happen. Suddenly, from around the corner barrels this large, concerned man, "Son! Son! You OK?!" The boy picks himself up, dusts off his hands and heads back up the stairs for another go at it. Boys.

The Bug Room is where Kyle and Ashley got into the fun. Previously, we sort of half-heartedly cheered at our kids having fun doing stuff that really held no interest for us as grown-ups. Until this. The "Be a Bug" exhibit was pretty darn fun. It took a picture of your face and then you appeared on screen as a bug darting about the city. We kind of hogged it for a bit. That's Brooklyn's face you see looking over the El.

And that would be her Daddy cheesin it up big-time.

Watch out, ladies. This one's trouble.

Bug love.

Me being a kid. Seriously, this was so cool. You stood in front of these screens which had little beads flowing like water. When you stood there, your shadow interrupted the flow. You could form little wells with your body and they would fill them up! Then you dropped your arm and they all spilled out! It was so amazing!

Future Rock Star. Strummmmm