Chicago

From Carlinville we were off to Chicago. Rach had a reading/signing in the city with several of her favorite authors, and we were looking forward to having some time in the big city. We were especially excited to show Jackson around Chi-town.
We started off the day with a ride on the El. At first Jackson was not thrilled with the way the doors opened and closed on their own ,but after awhile he was riding the train like he'd been a city boy his whole life.

We spent most of the morning strolling around Navy Pier. It was a gorgeous day and we could see for miles down the lake shore.

Jackson loved all the action and people walking by, but he went crazy when we got to the end of the Pier and he saw the water all around us. He would have jumped right in if we hadn't kept a tight grip on him. When we were all piered out, we got back on the bus and went downtown to the original Maggiano's. This is a must for us whenever we're in Chicago, and Jackson clearly understood why. He ate his body weight in bread, pasta, and of course, tiramisu.

After some more rides on various forms of public transportation, we went back to our awesome little BnB, House 5863. We spent the afternoon hanging out with some of the other authors who were staying there and then had a great dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant before Rach headed off to the bookstore.

She read along with her colleagues and then signed books for the great fans that had come to see her.

It was a great venue, a great crowd, we had a great group of authors together, which is always so much fun. (Left to right: Me, Jennifer Harris, Nell Start, Trinity Tam, C.P Rowlands, and Anne Laughlin).The next morning before we got on the road, Jennifer Harris brought over her precious little girl Sophie so that she and Jackson could play while we arranged their marriage.

They hit it off right away and Jackson, or Jack-in as Sophie called him, was obviously in good hands. She was not afraid to pull him out of the trash can and steer him back into the kitchen, and we thought that was a great thing since this boy is clearly going to need a woman who will keep him out of trouble.

We went across the street to the dog park and the kids played like old friends for almost an hour. We were really impressed with the way they got along and how much they interacted, but Rach was most pleased with Sophie's athletic abilities. That girl has quite the arm on her.

It was hard to say goodbye to Jennifer, Sophie, and Chicago, but in an attempt to eat away our sadness, we stopped out of a Steak-n-Shake in Indiana and what the food didn't help, the image of this super cute boy in his paper hat certainly did!