Sunday night we drove from Minneapolis to Forrest City, Iowa and stayed the night. In the morning we picked up our motorhome. It was really crazy the day we picked it up. We were not sure how long it would take to go through the rental agreement and procedures. The office opened at 8 am and we had to have our rental car back in Minneapolis by noon. We thought 2 hours would be enough time to get the motorhome if we came in at 8 and then I could drive the 2 hours back to Minneapolis and Brendan would drive the motorhome and pick me up in Minneapolis. We didn't want to bring the kids in and the rental was under my name, so Brendan stayed at the hotel with the kids while I did the rental orientation. Then I had to wait my turn to meet with a couple people to finish signing documents and it was taking a long time. Finally it came my turn and I signed what I needed to, but Brendan still needed to sign as a second driver and they had to do the motorhome walk through. I told them he would be back to finish up. It was 10 am at this point and I rushed back. Brendan told me that he called the rental car company and since he picked it up 30 minutes early he had to have it back by 11:30. If it was after 12 then they would charge us $70. The rental was only $26 through Costco. Brendan unloaded everything out of the rental car and strapped up Niels with me and I had to zoom off. It was a stressful drive back with my ETA changing on GPS. Brendan also said I needed to fill up with gas, but wouldn't have time. He said it would probably be a dollar or two more per gallon but to let the rental car company do it because it was less than the $70 late fee. I pulled up at the drop off at 12:05 and the guy saw that I didn't fill up and he said they charge $10 per gallon, so I should probably fill it up. He told me where the closest gas station was to the airport and I left. I was really stressed at this point. When I came back, I was obviously late, but to make a long story short, I went into the office and talked to someone and got out of the fee thankfully. Meanwhile back at the hotel, Brendan didn't have a car yet so he had to walk with the girls in the stroller over to the motorhome office, which was luckily only a 5 minute walk I think. He finished everything up and got the motorhome successfully.
Iowa
There were rows of motorhomes waiting to be transported. Here is our Minnie Winnie at pick up.
Wisconsin
We drove from Minneapolis to Stoughton, Wisconsin which was just a little outside of Madison and stayed at an RV park. Wisconsin was so green, and had beautiful farms everywhere. Stoughton had a cute little downtown.
We love cheese, and being in Wisconsin we definitely had to buy some. We bought a few different varieties that were delicious. We even bought some chocolate cheese which tasted just like fudge. It was nice having a refrigerator, so we could keep it cold and bring it home with us.
Chicago
We loved Chicago, and it ended up being our favorite city on the trip. We stayed there for 2 nights and wished we had more time. Brendan's brother Christopher luckily told us of a place in the city we could park our motorhome because the closest RV park was 45 minutes away and we wanted to be in the city. We parked at a truck marshaling yard for busses and trucks. We had to walk a little ways to hop on the bus each day to get downtown where we wanted to be, but it was great.
Buckingham Fountain was beautiful and right on the water.
Milleninum Park has lots of free outdoor concerts. While we were there some special DJ was putting on a free dance party. Hattie was showing me her dance moves. It was such a beautiful park right in the city and on the water.
The famous Cloud Gate or "The Bean".
Crown fountain has two towers that reflect the faces of Chicago. In the summer lots of kids play in it, but it was still a little chilly when we were there.
We tried some Chicago deep dish pizza. It wasn't our favorite. We prefer a thinner crust.
Garret's popcorn didn't disappoint though.
We walked down the famous Michigan Avenue with all of the high end shopping.
We really wanted to take an architecture boat tour, but the first place said pregnant people couldn't go. We found another I could go on, but we decided to just get water taxi passes for the day instead, because the kids probably wouldn't be into the tour anyway, and we wouldn't be able to enjoy it. We loved the water taxi, and it was so cool to cruise through the city with the buildings towering over us.
Our first stop off the taxi we headed to Willis Tower to go up to the sky deck. They had some amazing views of the city, and it was a little weird standing in the glass box that was 1353 ft up in the air.
Another stop off the water taxi we went to was Chinatown. We walked around and bought some delicious Boba drinks. They had so many different varieties and fresh fruit was lined up everywhere inside. They were delicious and refreshing. Hazel liked the popping boba.
The Maggie Daley Park was AMAZING! It was the best park we've ever been to. I only got a few pictures of one playground, but there were so many other cool parts, with cool swings adults could go on and a splash pad and just beautiful structures. The kids didn't want to leave. They still talk about the park.
This is where we parked our motorhome in the city. We had kind of a long walk to the bus, but the lady that drives the Navy Pier Trolley that parked next to us gave us a ride one morning down to the Navy Pier. It was really nice and saved us some walking, especially since my feet were getting a little tired and swollen from walking all day.
This was our setup for the kids' seats most of the time when we would put the table down. Niels is sleeping and Hazel and Hattie are watching a movie.
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