Last Friday we were still in the holiday spirit, so the girls and I met Tom downtown to explore the new
Maggie Daley Park, which officially opened just a few weeks earlier on December 13, and to have a fancy lunch at the
Walnut Room. Since it was the day after New Years, there was no traffic and we zoomed (as the girls like to say) into the city, picked up Tom and found a great parking spot at the Millennium Park Garage. We popped back up right across the street from the entrance to Maggie Daley Park and the Play Garden was within eyesight. Of course Isabelle wanted to go right away, so it was our first stop on that sunny, 31 degree day. Trust me, it felt downright balmy after the weather we've had this week. It was -6 when I woke up this morning.
This park is fancy. We explored the The Harbor play area, then the swings and finally the The Slide Crater which includes two huge towers with slides and a 30 foot suspension bridge to connect them. Isabelle said the bridge was too wobbly for her. Luckily there were some shorter slides so Isabelle I went down them and ran back up the crater to go down again...and again...and again until
I was worn out. Each play area had a sign saying what it was and what ages it was suitable for. Most of the large structures - like the scary tall slides - were for ages 5-12 and the rest were for the under 5 set. The playground is already out of this world, but it is still a work in progress and we can't wait to check it out when it is completely finished. They were working on The Lagoon when we were there.
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| The Harbor |
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| The Harbor |
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| On the suspension bridge |
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| Above The Slide Crater |
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| HOW COOL IS THIS?!?! |
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| The slides we went on are to the right |
It was getting close to lunchtime and we still wanted to check out the Ice Ribbon. I have never seen anything like it! It's a 20-foot-wide path that wraps a quarter mile around the park. That beats skating around and around a rink any day. We didn't bring our skates, but there were plenty of people out there and the line to rent skates ($12) was pretty long. The Ice Ribbon will remain open until March and then the rock climbing walls will open. It looked like one was done and another was still under construction. When it's done there will be 19,000 square feet of climbing surface
including top rope, sport lead and bouldering. Ah-mazing! I cannot wait to dig out my climbing shoes and try it all out!
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| The Ice Ribbon with one of the climbing towers on the right |
After checking out the Ice Ribbon, we walked across the BP Pedestrian Bridge - formerly known to the locals as the "Bridge to Nowhere" - through Millennium Park and then to Macy's. First stop was the Walnut Room where we found out we should have made a reservation. The wait was about 90 minutes. Not great. We bought some chocolate, checked out the furniture department and finally it was time to dine. We even got a table right under the tree!
What a great start to the new year!
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| We had a great view of the Christmas tree |
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| Fancy lunch! |
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| The Walnut Room at Macy's |
