For Valentine’s Day Chris and I decided we would take Addie to the “fishy zoo” – aka – Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium.  We wanted to do something special and a little different and she LOVED the Denver Aquarium so it seemed like a good idea.  All was well on the drive, we were a little worried about the timing of our day and how it would affect the Goose’s naptime but things seemed to be going our way.  On the road we texted Aunt Brookey (who lives in Wrigleyville – for all of you non-Chicagoans that is the area surrounding Wrigley Field in downtown Chicago) and she decided to take a cab and meet us at Shedd.  AWESOME.  Brooke is one of my favorite people and it made our special Valentine’s day trip even BETTER because she was going to be with us. And Addie adores her Aunt “book”.

So we drive past the Field Museum, Soldier Field, The Planetarium – all amazing architecture placed along the shoreline of a picturesque Lake Michigan.  There is no easily accessible parking so we valet. $25. Then we climb the 50 stone steps into the entrance hall of this absolutely incredible building that houses the aquarium.  The ceilings are breathtakingly high and all surfaces are covered in sea life reliefs.  So incredible. It’s worth it to go just to see the building!  The ticket line was short, maybe six or seven people deep and once we got our tickets (another $25 each) we were in and watching the fish and turtles and eels and starfish and sharks and anemones.

How many fish do you think Addie watched before she lost interest in all things aquatic?  About seven.

I can’t even blame her, after about five they all look about the same to me too!  But we looked in all the tanks as we waited for Aunt Brookey to get in..by that time the line had grown from 6 deep to out the door, down the stone steps, out to the street where it turned and continued down lakeshore.  Are fish REALLY that enticing?  I was shocked by the amount of people coursing through those halls!

After we checked out the penguins and the whales we found our way to the play area.  Normally, kids can put on a cute little penguin outfit and climb around on fake rocks and even slip down the penguin slide…but there was an insane number of kids packed into the play area. So we kept on walking and found the “touch and feel the sea life” area where we strapped her into a plastic apron and she was able to play with (fake) sand dollars and mollusks and star fish.

At this point we were all pretty exhausted and needed to eat but if you have ever been to an aquarium or a zoo or a museum then you know that the food isn’t exactly GOURMET.  So we washed and dried Addie and SOMEHOW convinced her that it was time to go without a giant meltdown – which was a miracle in itself seeing that she was already about 45 past naptime.  We pushed through the masses, found our way to the exit and found out we had to pay for valet by waiting. in. line.

At the end of the day we endured crazy crowds, endless fins and gils, were out about $100 and had a very cranky toddler when we were finally able to stop for lunch in Wrigleyville.  And you know what?

It was an awesome Valentine’s Day.

Happy Love Day to all of you out there! I hope your days are a little less expensive and crowded as ours was, but I hope it equaled the love and appreciation of family that I felt today.

Now go eat some candy hearts.