Rides, restaurants, swimming make Chicago vacation fun

By Michaela Karlesses (age 10)

(Courtesy: Chicago Office of Tourism)

One early sunny morning, I woke up in my beautiful, pink room. I climbed out of bed and raced down the stairs to have some breakfast. I was excited because this was the day I was going on a family vacation to Chicago! We were meeting my Aunt and my cousin for the weekend. I had not seen them in a long time and I could not wait.  We flew from Cleveland to Chicago and it was a very short flight!

When we got to Chicago, we met the rest of our family and drove to the W Chicago Lakeshore hotel. I liked this Chicago hotel because I could see Lake Michigan and a hugeFerris wheel from the hotel window! My mom promised us we could ride on it – yay! Since we got in pretty late, my mom said the only thing we could do was have a late dinner, so we went to a place called Café Luxe for dinner and my cousin and were allowed to order smoothies in tall, fancy glasses.  I got mango surprise and my cousin got strawberry sunshine! Boy, they were great!

The next day we woke up early and went shopping on Michigan Avenue! I have never seen so many stores in one place! My mom was happy too! After shopping we were able to go back to the hotel to swim in the pool! They had 5 giant beach balls in the pool and we played volleyball with them! It was a lot of fun.  Soon, other kids arrived and my cousin and I did not have the pool to ourselves anymore.  That’s ok because we met some new friends.

Soon it was time to go out for dinner and we went to a famous pizza place called Gino’s East. The pizza was really good, but the most fun thing was that our waiter gave us a silver sharpie and let us write our names on the wall! Now, they will always remember me – ha – ha.  I was tired from shopping and swimming and fell asleep fast. I was already looking forward to the next day.

(Courtesy: Chicago Office of Tourism)

I woke up early again and looked out the window. Sunny! Yay! Today was the day we were going to Navy Pier! We hurried my mom and aunt through breakfast and walked to Navy Pier. My mom said this hotel was in a good location because we could walk to most everything, but I like taking taxis too. Especially the checker cabs. Anyway, we got to Navy Pier and got tickets for the giant swings, the Ferris wheel and miniature golf. We even went on the swings two times.  WOW.  It was great.

After Navy Pier, we went to the beach and got to swim in the lake. I swam in Lake Erie before, but never Lake Michigan. My cousin is from Colorado, so she has never been in any of the Great Lakes, just pools and the ocean, once. Lake Michigan was cold, but it was fun. We had dinner that night at a place called Ed Debevic’s. The waitresses yelled at us, but they were just kidding. My mom and my aunt were laughing. My cousin and I were tired.

Thenext day we were able to go to the spa at the hotel to get our nails done. The spa was called Bliss. My mom said that is a good name for a spa. After that, we had dinner at the hotel and they brought us a lot of desserts to sample. My favorite was vanilla gelato. It was so good, I wanted to marry it!  Ha ha ha…

Then it was time to leave and I was sad. Sad to leave Chicago, but sad to leave my cousin and my aunt.  We had such a wonderful time. I loved it!

Related Orbitz resources:

• Family vacation
• Chicago hotel

Tagged: Family time, Midwest