Brisk Chicago Morning – A quick Day-Trip – Musical Family Adventures

We recently had the opportunity to spend a glorious morning in downtown Chicago! We had a whole morning to spend before meeting some friends, and we made the most of our time!

We parked in a garage downtown and walked a bit on Michigan Avenue, “The Magnificent Mile!” We then decided to head to the River Walk.

It took us a little time to find the “stroller friendly” entrance, but then we were soon on our way!

Seeing the Skyscrapers up close, (Or the “ky-crapers”, as KC calls them) was awesome! Even as chilly and early as it was, there were people out walking their dogs, out for their morning jogs, or just strolling like us. Although we were the only people we saw who were crazy enough to have their two little kids out in the stroller – hehe!!

It was pretty chilly at the beginning of March, especially with the wind so the kids were ready to get inside and get warm. It was a good thing we brought hats and big coats for them, and blankets. But wow!! Look at that clear blue sky!! It was certainly “refreshing!”

We did warm up for a bit in the Navy Pier area. For some reason it seems like anytime we go to Navy Pier it’s just a lot of construction and not much to see. But then again we tend to visit Chicago in the cold off-seasons, so that could be why. KC was happy to have a warm egg McMuffin from the McDonalds there to fill up his belly though! There is a neat looking children’s museum in the Navy Pier area but we’ll have to save that for another time when we have more time.

We were overjoyed to find the free trolley to take us back to the downtown area so we didn’t have to walk in the wind!! We were the only passengers and it was a neat way to see more of the area quickly! And FREE!! How cool!

I was happy to find a this donut place right near where the trolley dropped us off!

Stan’s Donuts gets a 5 star rating from us!! Delicious!! We shared 1 donut there and saved the rest for later. It was a cute little shop that the locals must frequent because the place was packed! The line didn’t take long, I just had a hard time deciding which yummy looking flavors of donuts to try! They got a “Captain Crunch” donut, Strawberry, Peanut Butter Chocolate, a lemon-filled and strawberry-filled donut. Yummo!!!!

We had one last yummy stop before heading back to the parking garage – Eataly! This store had everything from different kinds of pasta & sauces to fresh meats & any sort of Italian seasonings and toppings you could possibly think of!

This store is amazing!!! Just take a look at this aisles of interesting pastas!

These different kinds of noodles would be so fun to try!!

We decided to have a light lunch here. We tried the Procuitto & Mozzerella Foccacia bread. It was so tasty!!

This store had 2 floors and we could have easily spent 2 hours browsing all of the interesting things here! They even had a cooking school area where kids can take cooking classes – how cool is that??!