Chicago 2012, Part 2: "Dig it, Will" Edition

Back in February we started talking to Jefferson about the trip to Chicago. We asked him what he wanted to do and, without hesitating, he said "Lego Store."












He took $21 to the Lego Store and when we got there he was OVERWHELMED. Completely bewildered. It was like that scene in A Christmas Story (skip to 1:20) where Santa says "How about a nice football?" and Ralphie looks at Santa all dopey and nods. He finally settled on a Star Wars thing.












The first time we went to the Field Museum, Jefferson was too little to really grasp what he was seeing. These things looked like dinosaurs, but I don't think he understood that they were dinosaurs. This photo was his idea. I call it "Gojira!!"












I call this one "Feeding Time."









He kept up the "running away" theme through the whole museum, but was less committed to it with each photo.









Running away or sleepytown?









He sat in this footprint two years ago.












???









Dude broke out his entire pop 'n' lock routine at the Field Museum.









Look, these things freak me out. I think the reason must be that they look like things that still exist. There really isn't anything wandering around that still looks like a T Rex. But I guess there's a part of me that feels like that thing on the right might walk in front of my car when I'm driving through Mark Twain forest on the way to my parents' house. I bet "giant 10-foot tall devil elk" isn't one of the categories pre-printed on the State Farm claim form.









Chicago is home to incredible foods. Hands down, my favorite food item in Chicago is Potbelly Sandwich Works. We had this absolutely amazing French toast with bacon-pecan crumble topping at Xoco. It was one of the best things I ever expect to eat in my life. And yet ... the Italian sandwich and chocolate shake at Potbelly is my favorite meal. Maybe anywhere. I ate it for lunch and dinner Friday.









This was an exceptional trip to Chicago. We saw priceless works of art (but didn't eat pancreas, a la Ferris), saw day baseball at Wrigley, pretended to run from dinosaur bones, and had the best conference panel experience ever. The trip home involved 7 episodes of Batman: Brave and the Bold, the new Muppets movie, and an all day sucker that was thrown away after about 14 minutes.