Windy on my 3-0!!!
Friday, September 14, 2007
Last w
eek was my ump-teenth time at Chicago but this time I was on a mission. Since 
my Big 3-0 sky-diving and carnival ride-ing pretty much went down the Hudson Riverway, I knew I was there to SHOP SHOP SHOP. So after arriving on Thursday night, we headed straight to Claim Jumper where this dude totally bought my "It's my birthday ,really! You can check my license!"bit (If he did, I would've been so screwed). I got myself a hearty meal and some birthday ice cream cake. SHWEET.
eek was my ump-teenth time at Chicago but this time I was on a mission. Since 
my Big 3-0 sky-diving and carnival ride-ing pretty much went down the Hudson Riverway, I knew I was there to SHOP SHOP SHOP. So after arriving on Thursday night, we headed straight to Claim Jumper where this dude totally bought my "It's my birthday ,really! You can check my license!"bit (If he did, I would've been so screwed). I got myself a hearty meal and some birthday ice cream cake. SHWEET.The next day, since John had work and the kids had school, we went to this Prime Outlet Store and pr
etty much drained ourselves going around. Carrying 6-7 bags isn't much especially when it's all new goodies. Hehe. This was a huge store so a lot of walking had to be done. Since, for some reason, we weren't satisfied, we decided to go to another Outlet Store, in Gurnee Mills. I've been here before and I remember how overwhelmed I was then because I had only been in the US for a month. We had lunch at Rainforest Cafe where you're practically surrounded by animated jungle animals (life size too) and REAL colorful fish. Oh the guppies! They have this whole monsoon simulation too where lights flash and thunders roar and the whole place kind of shakes. Hehe, me likey! So once again, we shopped and then headed home after. Saturday night was J
ohn's Oma's (German grandmother) 40 days so we went to his house to see Frenchy, the 
widower. Now this guy had been married to Oma for 35 years and he is still not over her death. He would cry every 10 or so minutes, at first leaving the table rather awkward and silent. But we got used to it after. We got to chatting with several of John's family members and when we had to call it a night, we realized how Frenchy was left all by himself. I mean, after having a lot of people over for dinner, he was quite simply, all alone just like that. Poor poor guy. I pray he gets better soon.
etty much drained ourselves going around. Carrying 6-7 bags isn't much especially when it's all new goodies. Hehe. This was a huge store so a lot of walking had to be done. Since, for some reason, we weren't satisfied, we decided to go to another Outlet Store, in Gurnee Mills. I've been here before and I remember how overwhelmed I was then because I had only been in the US for a month. We had lunch at Rainforest Cafe where you're practically surrounded by animated jungle animals (life size too) and REAL colorful fish. Oh the guppies! They have this whole monsoon simulation too where lights flash and thunders roar and the whole place kind of shakes. Hehe, me likey! So once again, we shopped and then headed home after. Saturday night was J
ohn's Oma's (German grandmother) 40 days so we went to his house to see Frenchy, the 
widower. Now this guy had been married to Oma for 35 years and he is still not over her death. He would cry every 10 or so minutes, at first leaving the table rather awkward and silent. But we got used to it after. We got to chatting with several of John's family members and when we had to call it a night, we realized how Frenchy was left all by himself. I mean, after having a lot of people over for dinner, he was quite simply, all alone just like that. Poor poor guy. I pray he gets better soon.
day, Saturday, we were on another mission. We wanted to check out Chicago'
s Field Museum of Natural History but since it was very veryy farrr, we decided to park out at the station, get a train, get dropped off at the Union Station then bus out to the Museum. When we made it to the Union Station, we didn't see any bus but we heard there was a Free Trolley headed there anyways. It might be a bit of a reroute considering the stops the tourist trolley was going to make, but heck. It was my
first time on a Chicago trolley so off we went! WE WERE ON THE ROAD FOR 45 
minutes. Trafeek!!! Whenever I get in the middle of this Big cuty bustle, I appreciate Omaha more. Life is so much better in Omaha-- no traffic and you don't have to stay in your car stuck in the street just to get to oh, some place. So anyway, we make it there but because of the eaten time, we grabbed us some HotDog, went straight to the Musuem and oooh'd and aaah'd. I love museums, I can spend the entire day there. We saw the Underground adventure, Ancient Egypt, some cool animals
and the Dinosaur/Re
lic Earth section. These were ONLY AN INCH to the entire yard the museum had to offer! DARNED THE TRAFFIC! Because we had a 7 pm reservation at the Medieval Times, we went out to get us a trolley by 4:30. NOTHING CAME. The train left the Union Station at 5:35 so we really had to hurry. At 5:10 there was still no trolley so we cabbed out. Holyllujah! We made it to the station in 10 minutes! So we hopped, skipped and leaped and 3 minutes 
later, the train arrived. Phew! JU
ST IN TIME! So we rode it, reached the Lake Cook station and drove to the Medieval Times. (By the way, this pink hoodie I'm wearing was a last minute buy. Weather(ornot).com said that it was going to be sunny in Chicago. Riiiiight. It was drizzling a bit and got chilly towards sunset and of course, I wasn't armed nor was I equipped for Fall. So pardon the uncoordinated color, hehe)This place called Medieval Times showcases an actual (but choreographed) medieval fencing, lancing and jousting event WHILE YOU EAT. It was the first time for Joen and 
myself and we wer
e really blown away by the place. After paying, we were given "crowns" to wear over our heads with colors representing the TEAM we would be cheering. We belonged to the Red and Yellow Team. The place was sooo cool!!! Upon entering, the foyer has this sort of Knights' Court where the King's "Chancellor" announces the rules of the game and some thrilling tid-bits about the arena. This court had some merchandise for sale, some photo op booths and other souvenirs. As usual, we made it just in time. As all team audiences were asked to usher ourselves from the court to the actual DINING area, it was
breathtaking. You enter and right away you see this Arena with sand
as its flooring, just like in the Medieval Times. The arena was surrounded with bleachers, only apart from chairs, we had long tables where our dinner was to be served on. We saw our dinnerware... they were all metal! Metal plates, metal mugs and NO SPOON AND FORK, just the old times. The place was dim and a set menu was presented via a table napkin. Audiences belonging to the Green, Blue, Black/White, Red, Yellow and other teams were also seated. It was so cool!
myself and we wer
e really blown away by the place. After paying, we were given "crowns" to wear over our heads with colors representing the TEAM we would be cheering. We belonged to the Red and Yellow Team. The place was sooo cool!!! Upon entering, the foyer has this sort of Knights' Court where the King's "Chancellor" announces the rules of the game and some thrilling tid-bits about the arena. This court had some merchandise for sale, some photo op booths and other souvenirs. As usual, we made it just in time. As all team audiences were asked to usher ourselves from the court to the actual DINING area, it was
breathtaking. You enter and right away you see this Arena with sand
as its flooring, just like in the Medieval Times. The arena was surrounded with bleachers, only apart from chairs, we had long tables where our dinner was to be served on. We saw our dinnerware... they were all metal! Metal plates, metal mugs and NO SPOON AND FORK, just the old times. The place was dim and a set menu was presented via a table napkin. Audiences belonging to the Green, Blue, Black/White, Red, Yellow and other teams were also seated. It was so cool!They had a story behind the match. The King's brother was assassinated by one of the Knights, and alth
ough they duel over who's going to go after the murderer, the "assassin" turns out to be one of the Knights. They had some intermission horse dances, lancing and jousting exercises, Old English dialogue, the works! Everything was choreographed but what really amazed me were the horses. They were so very well trained and they were just the most graceful and well commanded 
horses I have ever seen. As for dinner, we got served with this HUGE portion of roasted chicken, some ribs, potatoes, soup and bread. Yes, we ate with our hands just like the Old Times. So as we shouted and cheered and clapped, our
hands were full from all the grease. Haha! Lingaw gyud kaayo! The kids couldn't stop screaming and cheering! OUR TEAM WON. The Red/Yellow Knight was tasked to hunt and in the end, kill the traitor Knight who had assassinated the King's brother. Yey!!! We had pics taken with the Princess and we got a souvenir from the Castle. We also got to visit this mini-museum of the torture devices used in the Medieval Times. Very cool!
ough they duel over who's going to go after the murderer, the "assassin" turns out to be one of the Knights. They had some intermission horse dances, lancing and jousting exercises, Old English dialogue, the works! Everything was choreographed but what really amazed me were the horses. They were so very well trained and they were just the most graceful and well commanded 
horses I have ever seen. As for dinner, we got served with this HUGE portion of roasted chicken, some ribs, potatoes, soup and bread. Yes, we ate with our hands just like the Old Times. So as we shouted and cheered and clapped, our
hands were full from all the grease. Haha! Lingaw gyud kaayo! The kids couldn't stop screaming and cheering! OUR TEAM WON. The Red/Yellow Knight was tasked to hunt and in the end, kill the traitor Knight who had assassinated the King's brother. Yey!!! We had pics taken with the Princess and we got a souvenir from the Castle. We also got to visit this mini-museum of the torture devices used in the Medieval Times. Very cool!We wer
e supposed to go out clubbing that night but we were pooped, tired, spent so we de
cided to do some booze that night (Ate Joyce had John buy some Mai-Tai which has, you guessed it, PINEAPPLE) so the rest of the adults drank while I pretty much just had to stick with water. Hehe. The next day, it was GRUB time once again! We went to PappaDeaux for BRUNCH. Oh, the food. The food!! We went full force knowing that we weren't eating until much later so we ate like it was going out of style. Jaja then hands me this Hollister bag bearing gifts, "Happy Birthday, Tita Maude". Hehe. I go
t me a blouse, a Burberry perfume (and I was about to run out of Burbs!), a necklace, and oh, I forget what else. I appreciated it much and the card that went 
with it even made it sweeter. We then headed to Ikea although it was a last minute stop. Good thing since the last time I had ever been to Ikea was when I was in HK. I ended up buying some cute organizers. We had ice cream and snacks at the bar.For some reason, Hoen wanted to do more shopping. WHO WAS I TO COMPLAIN?! Te Joyce too, being the clothes whore that she is, chimed right in and we were soon headed out to this other outlet store. We 
shopped shopped shopped once again but it was a pretty tricky sit
uation. AJ wanted to sleep and Jaja wanted to look for an outlet for her Nintendo DS. So Hoen babysat AJ as he slept in one of the benches while I went with Jaja. Then Hoen did the shopping while I babysat the two. Hehe kaluoy intawn. When everybody had their sugar treat, they were up and awake again. Hoen wanted to beat this Nintendo DS tennis game so that pretty much tickled the kids so much, they were laughing so hard at him. Hahahaha.
e supposed to go out clubbing that night but we were pooped, tired, spent so we de
cided to do some booze that night (Ate Joyce had John buy some Mai-Tai which has, you guessed it, PINEAPPLE) so the rest of the adults drank while I pretty much just had to stick with water. Hehe. The next day, it was GRUB time once again! We went to PappaDeaux for BRUNCH. Oh, the food. The food!! We went full force knowing that we weren't eating until much later so we ate like it was going out of style. Jaja then hands me this Hollister bag bearing gifts, "Happy Birthday, Tita Maude". Hehe. I go
t me a blouse, a Burberry perfume (and I was about to run out of Burbs!), a necklace, and oh, I forget what else. I appreciated it much and the card that went 
with it even made it sweeter. We then headed to Ikea although it was a last minute stop. Good thing since the last time I had ever been to Ikea was when I was in HK. I ended up buying some cute organizers. We had ice cream and snacks at the bar.For some reason, Hoen wanted to do more shopping. WHO WAS I TO COMPLAIN?! Te Joyce too, being the clothes whore that she is, chimed right in and we were soon headed out to this other outlet store. We 
shopped shopped shopped once again but it was a pretty tricky sit
uation. AJ wanted to sleep and Jaja wanted to look for an outlet for her Nintendo DS. So Hoen babysat AJ as he slept in one of the benches while I went with Jaja. Then Hoen did the shopping while I babysat the two. Hehe kaluoy intawn. When everybody had their sugar treat, they were up and awake again. Hoen wanted to beat this Nintendo DS tennis game so that pretty much tickled the kids so much, they were laughing so hard at him. Hahahaha. I want
ed to buy me a leather jacket so I went inside Wilson Leather. Because, as expected, th
ey didn't have a lot of XS jackets left, I had to call Hoen to help me out and see what looks good on me. He brought the kids with him. THen Ate Joyce and John followed. That's when the riot started. We AJ tried on this red jacket, then Jaja tried on this one jacket, then Hoen did then Ate Joyce did and we were pretty much hogging this one small mirror out of all the mirrors in the store. We had our own runway and we took pictures and we were just so noisy that the sales person kept looking at us. I bet we annoye
d him, hehe. It was a lot
of fun over... nothing. So I got a jacket, Hoen got one (so not part of the plan) and so did Ate Joyce. We were happy campers! We then drove down to this sort of ghost town (seriously ,it was eerie), and had buffet at BUFFET, the eat-all-you-must at th Grand Victoria Casino. There was some crab-eating contest and I think Ate Joyce won that one. Hehe. Since we had the kids, we couldn't go inside the Casino boat. And the kids had school tomorrow so we had to go home right away.
ed to buy me a leather jacket so I went inside Wilson Leather. Because, as expected, th
ey didn't have a lot of XS jackets left, I had to call Hoen to help me out and see what looks good on me. He brought the kids with him. THen Ate Joyce and John followed. That's when the riot started. We AJ tried on this red jacket, then Jaja tried on this one jacket, then Hoen did then Ate Joyce did and we were pretty much hogging this one small mirror out of all the mirrors in the store. We had our own runway and we took pictures and we were just so noisy that the sales person kept looking at us. I bet we annoye
d him, hehe. It was a lot
of fun over... nothing. So I got a jacket, Hoen got one (so not part of the plan) and so did Ate Joyce. We were happy campers! We then drove down to this sort of ghost town (seriously ,it was eerie), and had buffet at BUFFET, the eat-all-you-must at th Grand Victoria Casino. There was some crab-eating contest and I think Ate Joyce won that one. Hehe. Since we had the kids, we couldn't go inside the Casino boat. And the kids had school tomorrow so we had to go home right away. We left Chicago the next morning, Monday, at 6:55 am. We landed Omaha at around 8:20 am on time. All in all Chicago was a lot of fun. I'm glad I celebrated my beerday with family. We should go back there and check out the other museums next time. I want to see the Planetarium and more of the Field Museum. =)) I am not thirty years old. I now belong to another box, separate from the harem but same one as Hoen's. I can't believe I actually am here but I am loving it. Next year is going to be exciting, I just know it!
posted by maudester @ 2:28 PM
0 commentus maximus
