9/7-9/11: Illinois

Our time in Illinois was spent with my mom's college roommate. She is such a delight! 

One of our favorite places in Wheaton was Cantigny which is formerly the estate of Robert McCormick. The grounds of the estate are full of beautiful flowers! 

There is a tour of his house as well. It is quite an incredible mansion. Sadly they did not allow photos on the inside!

We also toured the war museum about the 1st Division which is on the grounds. It was experiential which made it quite eye-opening. We actually went to Cantigny twice we loved it so much :)

*It took multiple tries but i finally was able to climb up on a tank! 

One of the nights we decided that we had to have deep dish pizza while we were in the Chicago area! It was a little more complicated since we can't have cheese, but we didn't let that stop us!! We drove into the city for Deep Dish Night at Kitchen 17 which is a vegan restaurant. Mmmm. 

My mom's roommate took us out to dinner one night then showed us around Wheaton College where both my mom and dad (and her) attended! Loved seeing where my parents spent their college days. Alyssa and I walked around it the next day to see it in the daylight. :)

*Near where my parents first met :)

*Belltower where my parents rang the bell to announce their engagement!

Another highlight was a Free Tours by Foot tour of 'the loop' in Chicago. We learned about the history of Chicago and saw a lot of different sculptures around the city, including the infamous one nicknamed 'the bean.'

*Inside a government building 

*by Picasso

*every 5 minutes the lips pucker and spit out water!

After the tour we went to the Museum of Science and Industry where we enjoyed their creative, hands-on exhibits. 

*Loved this train set that showed the train going from Chicago to Seattle!! It was huge!

*Inside the middle of a slow speed tornado

*The mirror maze was so much fun! At one point Alyssa said, hey look! I can spin around! We had just been bragging about being able to tell what were mirrors vs open spaces. She spun around...and thwack, went right into a mirror!

One of our days we volunteered at Feed My Starving Children. This organization packs a rice dish for families who need food around the globe. The group we had the chance to volunteer with were adults with disabilities. This just added to the delight of our time and made it so much better!

During one of the days we spent time doing some 'blessings.' These included sending encouragement packages to friends who need them, buying someone's Starbucks drink, surprising some girls who were studying with treats, and leaving out 'lucky pennies' for people to find. These were all inspired by Blessings on Behalf of Becca Boo on the one year mark of her cancer diagnosis. What an amazing way to spend a day!

*All of the packages ready to mail

*Starbucks where we bought someone a coffee :)

*Lucky penny :)