Back to Millennium Park

Wednesday, August 7:  Today was a totally perfect summer day. 38 years ago, right about now, God gave me a gift of my second son, a beautiful boy he was. His birth was painless and very fast. We will celebrate with him this coming weekend.

Today, however, I took Kaity (and Emma came too) back to Millennium Park. We began our time there with paddle boating. It was SO MUCH FUN. Emma was very good at it too. She is a great navigator. I love being with her so much.

I can't believe that I failed to take a picture of the actual paddle boat ... rats. It's a four seater. The two seats in front have pedals on the floor (like a bike, kind of), and the back seats are just for passengers. But it was perfect for Emma, Kaity and I. I love to explore, don't you? And being in a boat, in total control of WHERE you can go and how FAST you can go (not very fast, I might say!) ... was so much fun. We paddled through a little channel, out into the bigger lake area. To our right was the swimming area, which is all roped off and marked with buoys. We were NOT allowed to paddle in the swimming area. Instead, we headed straight for this little island, right in the middle!

 It turns out that this little island was much bigger when we steered around it. See? (below)

 To our right, we saw the boardwalk that is right next to the really nice playground they have. I often stand on it while Kaity monkeys around on the playground right behind those trees.

 And then there is THIS boardwalk/platform, which I have yet to stand on. I think it looks mighty pretty on the lake though ... so I took about a dozen photographs of it. I love wooden structures.

 As we turned a bend, I saw this stone bridge! Head for the bridge, I said! So Emma and I paddled like crazy. Should we go under?

 Absolutely! Of course, Emma very slyly mentioned all of the spiders we might encounter while underneath the bridge ... but did I let her frighten me from exploring? No way, Jose!

 Here we go .... U-N-D-E-R !

 There is a TON of stuff to explore on the other side, which I am determined to do! Emma seems very interested to do this as well ... perhaps Sunday afternoon?

 Dear Kaity had enough of riding on the back of a paddle boat ...

 She "suggested" that we head back ... ha! We knew that we DID have to get back to the boat house, though, because we had only rented the boat for one hour.

 See the swimming area?

And here is the boat house ...

 We actually docked the boat back in place without incident. Whew! I was wondering how difficult it might be ... but it went pretty smoothly.

 Then we headed over to the Splash Pad for Kaity to play ...

 And then we ALL went to the beach area and swam for about an hour. We played ball. We had races. We laughed together. It was wonderful, from start to finish! Then we took Kaity to the playground for a little while ...

 Hey! Anyone want some GOOD ice cream? Both girls were decidedly FOR this idea! We decided to eat our ice cream outside at DQ. Emma directed me to the one over in Walker, near their house. While she was giving me directions (rather last minute), she told me to "Turn Right" and I asked, "When?" And she replied, "Now!" So I made a rather quick and sharp RIGHT TURN, squeeling my tires and sending Kaity and Emma into a fit of laughter. They won't let me forget that for a LONG TIME.

Emma ordered a banana split, and Kaity got a dipped chocolate cone. Yum. Since I am rather dairy intolerant, I did not order anything. Pooh. It was enough just to watch the delight of these two dear granddaughters ... who needs ice cream when I can sit here and visit with these two?