Chicago Trolley Holiday Lights Tour

This was a cool “wintery” thing to do.  I wanted Aiden to get to see the holiday (and downtown) lights from the warm, non-stressful, passenger seat of someone’s else’s vehicle so this seemed like the perfect thing to do.  We boarded the trolley at the John Hancock building and Aiden and I lucked out and got the only seat up front next to the driver on a platform.  

We had a great view from there and of course Aiden wanted to talk to our Santa Claus driver.  He was great too.  He told us the history of some of the buildings we’d pass, and he had us singing Christmas carols as we sat in traffic.  The sights on the tour were the Magnificent Mile, Macy's Holiday Windows, the John Hancock Center Tree, Daley Plaza and Millennium Park.  It also made 3 stops.  The 1st was at Sprinkles bakery where they gave us complimentary red velvet cupcakes, the 2nd was at the Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza, and the 3rd was at Lincoln Park Zoo to see their two million holiday lights.  The Christkindlmarket was a bit much for us.  It was so tightly packed and the lines were really long at each booth so we just did a quick walk through and then got back on the trolley and waited with our Santa driver.  The zoo lights were cool but we weren’t given a whole lot of time to go through it all, and it was freezing cold, so we saw what we could then got back onto the trolley. It was a good time.  I think Aiden’s favorite parts were singing Christmas carols on the trolley and eating the cupcakes.

Field Museum - Chicago

Aiden is in absolute love with dinosaurs so we took him to the Field Museum to see Sue the T-Rex and the rest of their dinosaur exhibit.  He enjoyed it but I had a feeling that he would have preferred to see all the dinosaurs with skin on their bones.  All of his dinosaurs at home have flesh and skin so I think he missed that familiarity. But we didn’t  just see the dinosaurs.  We visited as many of the exhibits as we could. This place is huge.  We weren’t able to see everything but I would happily go back at his request.

Voting

I took Aiden with me when I voted in both the 2016 primary and general elections.  For the primary election we went to the West Dundee Village Hall.  It was during the early voting period and I guess the timing was right because there were only about 2 people ahead of me.  Aiden stayed in line with me just long enough to ask the volunteers there what their names were and how they were doing that day.  They loved him and gave him a sticker.  Aiden wanted to sit and look out the window across the room since we were on the 2nd floor. The room was small enough that he wasn’t very far from me, and I could see him clearly from the voting booth, so I let him stay there.  When I finished he made sure to say goodbye to everyone before we left.  That kid makes everyone smile.

For the general election we went to the Carpentersville Fire Department Station #3.  Again we went during the early voting period and right after Aiden got out of school.  This time there were probably about 7 people ahead of us.  The voting room was very small there so we spent most of the time just waiting in the hallway.  I didn’t want to leave Aiden there out of my sight so he was with me in the voting booth.  Not a lot of chatting was going around at this place so we came and left without Aiden ever introducing himself to anyone.  I think he was a little disappointed. LOL