Visit Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, Cause A Ruckus!

The girls wanted to make a pilgrimage to the American Girl Doll store in Chicago. For six months we’d been promising to do it, and finally we had the time and extra money to make the trip. So we loaded up the van and headed for Chicago. We’d soon be journeying down Chicago’s Magnificent Mile!

Chicago is not a twelve-passenger van, large family friendly place. Parking was the first problem. We wouldn’t fit in most garages and street parking was a futile exercise in trying to beat the car that had just parked in the open space we’d been eyeing. But find parking we eventually did, and then it was time to trek to the American Girl Doll store.

At the time there was only seven of us, but it was amazing the looks you get when you are a large family walking down crowded Michigan Avenue, the Magnificent Mile, in Chicago. We must have looked like we had arrived from a different planet. I can’t imagine what it would be like today with all 9 of us! Anything more than 1.7 children was a strange, freakish anomaly to this downtown culture. The looks would usually start when they realized we weren’t a school group, but a family! But oh well, it just made our trip seem like some fantastic journey to a strange land.

Then we arrived at American Girl Doll store. Nirvana! Amidst the sea of children, it was a little girl’s dream – outfits, dolls, a doll hair salon and even a doll repair/doctor shop! The girls were in bliss and smiles were the rule for the day.

From there it was carriage rides, walks on Lake Michigan, the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium. What magic. (And finally, families galore!) Years and more babies later, the kids still talk about that trip as if it was yesterday. What joy the simplest of journeys can bring with people you love.

For your next trip to Chicago, check out the wikitravel on Chicago, it is a great way to plan a trip! Do not miss the Magnificent Mile!

http://wikitravel.org/en/Chicago