2014 Chicago RV Show

I love the lure of the open road, that dark line of concrete ribbon stretching out before me.  The month of February always finds me restless, bored with winter and lack of sunshine.  My wanderlust hits hard and I find myself day dreaming about hiking trails and streams, unfurled maps, loaded up cars and faraway destinations.  I'm ready to go!  That makes February the perfect time of year to visit the Chicago RV Show and Chablis and I always look forward to going every year.

When my kids were younger we owned several different sized RV's.  The first one we bought was a used pop up camper and it really was a piece of crap.  We just wanted to get a feel for the camper and see if we liked it before we invested a lot of money in something better.  When we bought it we didn't realize that there was a huge rip in the material along one end of the camper, right alongside the bed.  In the middle of the first night, Tony rolled over and fell right out of the camper and landed on the ground.  Imagine our surprise.  We still laugh about that one.  I'll tell you one thing, that camper lasted one trip and quickly got traded in for something larger, better, and best of all - brand new!

Every year we go to the RV show and spend hours climbing in and out of many different models.  When we went last year, which I talked about here, I was leaning towards a Class C motor home.  In the months since, we've nixed that idea and the biggest reason is that I don't like the idea of always having to take my "home" with me when we just want to sight-see, or geocache, when out of town.  So we've narrowed it down to a pull behind camper.

 It's amazing how many different things they can do with a limited amount of space.

I took a picture of this one only because the name got me.  Sanibel - yeah. 

The color choices and the materials used today are just beautiful.

Chablis is always partial to the bunk beds.  Some kids never grow up.

While we were walking around we ran into my sister and her husband.  How wild is that?

Choosing the correct size is important.  The smallest RV we owned was 18 ft. and the largest was 36 feet with 2 slide out units.  Like Goldilocks and the 3 bears, I have to say that the 18 ft. was too small and the 36 ft. was too big.  Chablis and I decided that a 27 ft. with 1 slide out would be just about right!

Here's the one I really liked this year.  Chablis gave it 2 thumbs up as well....

Lots of storage.....

The kitchen was really pretty with a good sized refrigerator and a good amount of counter space.  The bathroom was large and had a full size shower.  There were 2 large bunks in the back....

Nice wrap around seating for the kitchen table....

Look at the size of the TV!  And get this cool feature -  The TV was on a swivel so you could turn it at night and it faces the master bedroom behind it.  That was awesome and a must-have for my hubby.

I also really liked this feature - see that rounded cabinet under the counter? It swings out and there are 2 storage areas in there.  Sweet!

I think Betty Boop wants me to have this RV.  In fact, if we got this RV, I think that's what I'd have to name her...  Betty Boop!

We also stopped by the Progressive Insurance booth.  They had a bunch of give away prizes and we won some insect repellent, a travel water dish and leash for Petey and a nice tee-shirt....

I also got my picture taken with Flo.....

All in all it was a fun day at the RV show.  I really want another RV and I know sometime in the future we'll have one again.  In the meantime, it's fun to dream isn't it?  I have to do something when that wanderlust kicks in!

Chicago Line Cruises

Have you ever taken an architectural tour?  Chablis and I took one last week of Chicago and we really enjoyed it.  We booked a trip with Chicago Line Cruises, and opted for the 1 1/2 hour boat cruise.  The
$ 40.00 per person tickets included the boat ride, an informative docent who spoke for the entire 90 minute trip and a treat table of Starbucks coffee, assorted teas, water and homemade lemonade, as well as  delicious, fresh baked muffins and cookies.  Water, a boat, a nice day and food - What's not to like??

The trip starts out at the North Pier Dock, which is located just blocks away from Navy Pier.  The cruise ship passes under Lake Shore Drive....

 rounds Ogden Slip and slides into the Chicago River....

Look on the left side of the building below.  That's a window washer hard at work.  Windex anyone??

The view from the river offers a totally different perspective of the buildings that I usually see from a distance...

We heard about the different architectural styles and the famous architects who worked on the various buildings.  After the Chicago Fire in 1871, the entire lakefront business district was wiped out and had to be re-built from the bottom up.  Actually, I should do a blog post on that one day, because it's really interesting.

This is the NBC building.....

The Civic Opera House...

This is the Wrigley building and I like this type of architecture the best.  I like all the columns and intricate decorations.

Marina Towers....

The Merchandise Mart, which is one of the largest buildings in the world and was once owned by the Kennedy family....

The Sun-Times building...

The Spirit of Progress is perched atop the Montgomery Ward building, which was once the national  headquarters of the world's oldest mail order business....

That's Sears Tower in the background.  Well, actually it's now known as Willis Tower, but I can't bring myself to utter the words...  It's 108 stories high and is the tallest building in the United States.  The docent told us that the top of the building will sway as much as 3 feet in the wind.  One of the upper floors has three  glass balconies that are built out 4 feet and for a fee you can go stand in them and stare down at Wacker Drive, 1353 below.  I haven't done it yet, but one of these days I will.  

That building in the distance, to the right of center, is all 14k gold on top....

There is only one skyscraper that was allowed to be built east of Lake Shore Drive, and that's Lake Point Tower.  It's one of my favorite buildings because of its graceful curves.  The windows are bronze tinted and  surrounded by gold anodized aluminum frames that make the building shimmer gold in the sun.

We lucked out and got to see some of the bridges open while we cruised by....

Returning to port we could see the Ferris wheel at Navy Pier....

When we were on the river we saw this water fountain...

The docent told us that the city is in the process of building a 4 mile Riverwalk, so after the cruise we ventured down the portion of it that had been completed.  We strolled past restaurants, shops and lots of empty store fronts just waiting for businesses to move in.  We also came across the water fountain again...

The Riverwalk is going to be a beautiful addition to the city and I imagine it will be bubbling with activity once it's completed.  We walked over to see the Tribune building and then had lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern, which you can read about here.

If you're in Chicago and want to see the city from a different perspective and learn some of the history of these amazing buildings, then I suggest you take one of the boat tours.  The only thing I didn't like, and this had nothing to do with the boat tour company at all, was the parking situation.  We chose to drive into Chicago that day and park at one of the parking garages.  The price for 4 hours was $ 36.00.  Are they insane??  To park a car?  Next time I'll just take the Metra and hike the 2.5 miles to the boat tour.  Keep that in mind.