Double Ten Day Parade in Chicago

Last weekend we traveled to Chicago to meet up with other Taiwan adoptive families and to get out of town to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary. The families met up for lunch on Saturday at The Phoenix in Chinatown and then on to the parade.


After the parade we did a little shopping, found some lip smackin' buns at a Chinese bakery, and went to our hotel so Hannah could nap. She doesn't usually nap at home, but big days with lots of excitement seem to still require naps.

Around dinner time I started to get a little worried. What were we going to do in a big city at night with a toddler in tow? IDEA! How about checking out the American Girl store on Michigan Avenue? I wonder how late they are open? I checked out their web site and they're open until 9pm, so we headed downtown.

Walking on Michigan Avenue with Hannah was so funny. She pointed out everything. The tall buildings, the lights, all of the cars, the bushes that looked like a maze. It was a delight just watching her get so excited about downtown. She rode on Daddy's shoulders so she could see everything and wouldn't get trampled by all of the people squished around us that weren't looking where they were going.

When we arrived at American girl, she was so excited. Her little legs just didn't stop moving and hoping. She was most impressed with the large displays with video and wasn't really interested in looking at boxes of dolls. In the bitty baby area we did play with some of the little baby dolls. We gave one a bath in a little tub, changed a diaper, gave a baby a bottle, and pretended to spoon feed baby food to a doll in a high chair. Hannah has never been one to want to play with dolls, so this was a fun new thing for us to do together. After Daddy couldn't take any more (wink wink), we visited the Lego store and rode the glass elevator all the way to the top and then back down all the way to the bottom.


On Sunday we joined friends at church and went out to lunch at the 527 Cafe in Evanston. I was really excited about having some Taiwanese Beef and Noodle soup. Unfortunately, about a third to half of the items on the menu were unavailable. What a downer! Kevin had Taiwanese pork and rice noodles and I had Taiwanese work with rice. Both were good and served with a tea egg.








It's pretty fun getting together with families with little ones from Taiwan, and really special when your kiddos were roomies and knew each other before you knew them. :)