Travels with Children

This is my oldest son, who wasn’t sure he wanted to go up in the Sears Tower.  (He was most fearful of the elevator ride.)  Once we got up, however, he was interested in seeing everything. Living on the prairie as we do, the highest he’d been before was probably Hermann Monument.  So not only did he want to see the views, he wanted to see what this tall building was all about and tried to look straight down.

For more travel photos, visit Photo Fridays at DeliciousBaby.

Sears Tower Skydeck

233 S Wacker Drive (enter on Jackson St.), Chicago, IL. 312-875-9447. www.the-skydeck.com
Adults $12.95, ages 3-11 $9.50, 2 and under free. Pay parking available nearby. Stroller accessible. Restrooms available.

After a day of walking around downtown Chicago, it seemed a shame to walk past the Sears Tower without a visit to the Skydeck. We calmed our 6-year-old’s fears that the elevator would be scary and headed in. First on the tour was an informative video about the history of the Sears Tower, and then we were ushered into the elevators for the ride to the 103rd floor. It was a clear day, and we had a good view of the city, suburbs, and Lake Michigan. When the kids got tired of the view, they could look at the child-sized Chicago exhibit painted on the interior walls.

Although it’s a little expensive, going up into a tall building is something we don’t get to do often, and it was a memorable stop for all of us on our Chicago trip.

My brother thought that the elevator would be as fast as a roller coaster. I liked the movie that we watched.

I really liked going on the elevator and looking out with our binoculars.

57th and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL. 773-684-1414. www.msichicago.org
$13 adults, $9 ages 3-11, $12 seniors 65+, 2 and under free. Discounts for Chicago residents. ASTC membership reciprocity. Pay parking available. Stroller accessible. Restrooms available. Cafe on-site.

Our last visit to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry had been two years ago, but when the kids heard we were going there again, they immediately asked to go to the children’s area–it had definitely made an impression on them.

The Museum of Science and Industry has so many different exhibit areas that I sometimes forget it’s all one museum. From the kids’ Idea Factory, to the U-505 submarine, to the Pioneer Zephyr train, to the farm exhibit complete with tractor and combine, to the model train exhibit, there’s something for everyone at the museum. We were there from 9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and still hadn’t seen everything. We’ll go back on our next trip to Chicago.

I liked the Idea Factory and I put a lot of balls through the pipe over to that place and then when it got full, the balls floated over there and it kept going in circles. It was like the balls were overflowing.

I really liked the water part where you got to pedal.

The Notebaert Nature Museum

2430 N Cannon Dr, Chicago, IL.  773-755-5100.  www.chias.org.
$9 adults, $7 seniors 60+, $7 ages 13-22 with ID, $6 ages 3-12, 2 and under free.  Free on Thursdays (donation requested for adults).  ASTC membership reciprocity.  Parking (free or pay) available nearby.  Stroller accessible.  Restrooms with changing tables available.

While in Chicago, we scheduled one day to spend in Lincoln Park, and our first stop was the Notebaert Nature Center.  We were fortunate to find a free on-street parking space right across the street.  Inside the museum, we found several child-friendly exhibits.  The water tables are always a hit with the kids, as are spiders and snakes that are appropriately contained.  A special preschool play area had a slide for the kids and a conveniently-located family restroom.  The “green” home exhibit was informational for me and also enjoyed by the kids, and we all liked the butterfly room.

I wasn’t sure exactly what we’d find at a “nature museum,” and was very pleasantly surprised at all the hands-on activities that were available on a wide range of topics.

Lincoln Park Zoo

2001 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL.  312-742-2000.  www.lpzoo.org
Free.  Various parking options available in vicinity; we were fortunate to find a free on-street parking spot.  Stroller accessible.  Restrooms available.  Concessions on premises.

We spent an entire day in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago, visiting the Notebaert Nature Center, the Chicago History Museum, and the Lake Michigan beach before meandering through the zoo on our way back to the car.

The great thing about the Lincoln Park Zoo is that it’s free.  There’s also a very nice (albeit somewhat expensive) carousel that we enjoyed riding.  But as far as animals go, well, we really didn’t see many.  There are several entrances and exits to the zoo, but once you’re inside, the signage isn’t very helpful.  We’d see a sign or a banner with an animal on it and assume that we’d find that animal nearby, but this method really didn’t work very well.  It was also quite warm the day we were there, not terribly hot, but apparently warm enough that many of the animals were in hiding in their areas, according to various signs.  Halfway through the zoo, we wondered if we would see more than rabbits and squirrels, but finally we found a lion, which was quite magnificent, a rhinocerous, which was the favorite of our 3-year-old, and some monkeys.

Mind you, since we’d already walked 2 or 3 miles that day, we weren’t exactly looking to find every nook and cranny of the zoo, and it was an enjoyable shortcut back to our car.  But for the number of animals that we actually saw, we were really, really glad that the admission was free.

I really liked seeing the lion there.

Graue Mill

3800 S. York Road, Oak Brook, IL. 630-655-2090 (museum) or 630-920-9720 (office). www.grauemill.org
Adults $3.50, 4-12 $1.50, 3 and under free. Free parking. Not easily stroller accessible. Restrooms available in nearby park area.

The Graue Mill is one of those pieces of history that is probably overlooked by many visitors to the Chicago area, but when I came across it in our travel information and mentioned it to my husband, I had his attention immediately and it became one of our “must-see” sites. You see, the Graue Mill is not only the only operating water gristmill in Illinois, but it is a documented stop on the Underground Railroad. What an interesting piece of history!

We visited the Graue Mill on a Sunday afternoon when they were having a scavenger hunt for the kids. They had to visit all three floors of the mill to find specific objects and jot them on their papers. Along the way, artisans and interpreters were there to bring the mill to life. Perhaps most exciting was the actual demonstration of the milling process, where my oldest was chosen to go behind-the-rail and help grind the grain.

Outside the mill, there are nice paths where you can watch the wheel at work, or walk along the adjacent stream and keep a restless toddler happy for a while.

We were very glad to have found the Graue Mill. It was not only very interesting for my husband and me, but the kids still talk about it as well.

I really liked watching the gears turn round and round and doing the model of the mill.

1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL. 312-922-9410. www.fieldmuseum.org
$12 adults, $7 ages 4-11, students with ID, and 65+. Discount for Chicago residents.
Parking $15/day. Stroller accessible. Restrooms with changing tables.
Restaurants available (including McDonald’s).
ASTC reciprocity.

I knew that the Field Museum was one of the “big” Chicago museums, but I wasn’t sure how kid-oriented it would be. I shouldn’t have been worried. First of all, if one of the museum restaurants is McDonald’s, I should have guessed that kids would like it.

We had taken the Metra train into downtown Chicago and had walked almost three miles to get to the Field Museum, so when we arrived just before noon, the kids were all hungry. We flashed our ASTC reciprocity cards, which allowed free admission to everything but a few special exhibits, and promptly found one of the largest McDonalds I’ve ever been in. They were well set up for families with lots of high chairs and a “cave” area with additional seating, but a stroller parking area would have been nice so that we weren’t blocking so much of the aisle with our single and double strollers.

After lunch, we headed out into the exhibit areas, learning about different civilizations, seeing the big elephant and Sue, the t. rex. Volunteers were on hand to help the kids with a giant floor puzzle of North and South America and to show them how to find fossils in the floor, which was a big hit for my six-year-old.

All areas of the museum were easily accessible with our strollers, but sometimes we got just a little bit lost. The exhibit areas make a lot of twists and turns, and if a child gets ahead of you and around a corner, it can be hard to find him. There were also a few exhibits where we got so turned around that we couldn’t easily find the way out.

We spent nearly three hours at the Field Museum, which is a long time in one building with our little kids’ short attention spans.

I liked putting together the map puzzle of the world.

I really liked finding fossils in the floor.

DuPage Children’s Museum

301 N. Washington St., Naperville, IL.  630-637-8000.  www.dupagechildrensmuseum.org
$7.50 ages 1 and up; $6.50 seniors 60 and up.  Free parking.  Stroller accessible.  Restrooms with changing tables available.
Reciprocal admission through ACM (see “Adventures on a Budget” above for more information).

Our trip to the DuPage Children’s Museum was somewhat unplanned.  We wanted to go to the Chicago Children’s Museum at Navy Pier, but the Navy Pier parking lots were full and we gave up on finding the alternate parking in downtown Chicago, so we looked at our list of potential Chicago-area places to visit and decided on DuPage Children’s Museum.  It ended up working out well, as the 30-40 minute trip there gave the kids a chance for a little nap in the car.

We had called for directions, so we found the museum without any trouble.  The museum is also right next to a Metra train station, so that would be another transportation option.

Inside, most of the exhibits are on one level.  (We didn’t even realize there was a second exhibit area until we were on our way out at closing time.)  Instead of being separate rooms, they are grouped into “neighborhoods” that flow from one into another.  In some ways, this is nice, because our children could be exploring different things at different times, but on the other hand, it was hard to keep track of everyone!

I really liked the special baby and toddler areas so that the little ones had some age-appropriate things to do.  The building workshop was a hit with my four-year-old, and the six- and three-year-olds liked the music area (which is in its own room to help contain the noise of the bells and drums).  The water/bubble area succeeded in getting everyone wet despite the plastic smocks, but that comes with the territory.

This is a bright and cheery children’s museum, with large windows that let in sunlight.  It is also well-staffed so that you see museum workers out on the exhibit floor.  (This is not true at every children’s museum.)  I did think it was loud in there in a white-noise kind of way; I’m not sure if was the ventilation system or the ball-blast exhibit, but there was a general loudness (beyond children’s voices) there.

There’s a huge purple chair available for kids to take a rest or climb on, and it’s the perfect place to take a souvenir photo.  Benches for parents or grandparents to rest on are also plentiful throughout the museum.

We hadn’t arrived at the museum until mid-afternoon, so our visit was cut short by the closing of the museum.  We would have liked to explore even more.

I really liked the choo-choo train outside by the door.

I liked the balls when they sent them different places.

Chicago History Museum

1601 N. Clark St. (S end of Lincoln Park), Chicago, IL. 312-642-4600. www.chicagohs.org
$14 adults, 12 and under free. Free on Mondays. Nearby parking availble (fee). Stroller accessible. Restrooms available. Cafe on-site.

We got to the Chicago History Museum after spending the morning in Lincoln Park, and we were hungry, so our first stop was at the small Wolfgang Puck’s cafe onsite. Unfortunately, the prices were high and the kids choices limited (especially when considering a peanut allergy) so our lunch was light. When we headed into the museum, however, we found the fun.

Galleries about the Great Chicago Fire, Chicago’s music, a streetcar and train engine, and volunteers showing the city’s bridges were interesting, and we learned a lot about Chicago’s history. We saved the best for last, however. The Sensing Chicago exhibit area was a lot of fun! We were able to smell traditional Chicago items, experience a Cubs game, and listen to some Chicago jazz, but being made into a giant hotdog, complete with “condiments,” was a highlight. The kids especially liked making me into a hotdog! We ended our museum trip by creating and sending an electronic postcard from each of the kids, which will be a nice memory of our trip.

The Chicago History Museum was interesting for both the adults and kids in our family, and I’m glad we made the trek through Lincoln Park to see it.

I liked the train car and I really liked it when they had My Chicago and I also liked being a hotdog, but not when they put on the hard toppings.

Art Institute of Chicago

111 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL. 312-443-3600. www.artic.edu
$12, children under 12 are free. Parking available in nearby garages (fee). Stroller accessible. Restrooms with changing tables available.
Free Thursdays from 5-8 p.m.

When we vacationed in Chicago this summer, the Art Institute was a spot I definitely wanted to make for very one specific reason: while living in Iowa, I had become a fan of Grant Wood’s art, and the famous American Gothic is housed at the Art Institute of Chicago.

We ended a Thursday in downtown Chicago at the Art Institute (which, not coincidentally, had free admission on Thursday evenings). Our first stop was in the Kraft Education Center, where guidebooks had advised stopping for information on seeing the museum with children. We got more than we bargained for. We were led to an activity room where there were supplies for each child to make his or her own collage picture, and then shown the family room, where there were picture books about arts, blocks for building, and most importantly for us, puzzles of artwork from the Institute, including American Gothic.

Our kids have been to a lot of museums, but not a lot of art museums, so I was pleasantly surprised when they picked up quickly on the terminology (galleries) and themes (these are all Jesus pictures), and behavior (keeping their voices appropriately low for the most part). Although we kept the strollers moving at a steady pace, we saw almost all of the galleries while on our quest for American Gothic.

Finally, we found our “I Spy” piece and the kids were thrilled. (They still talk about it and get excited when they see replicas or spoofs of the painting.) All in all, we spent about an hour and a half at the Art Institute–not nearly enough time to do it justice, but a decent amount of time to give some young children gradual exposure to a variety of art pieces. I would not hesitate to return there with the kids.

Too bad Chicago’s a day’s drive away!

I really liked going in the children’s place where they had all the crafts.

I liked doing the “I spy with my little eye” and finding American Gothic.