Chicago: Day One - The Bad Stuff!

I was really excited to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo.  In the weeks leading up to this vacation, I researched it on the internet and found it's one of the last free zoos in the US.  So I was super excited about going, especially because it was going to be free and because I know how much Punkin loves animals.  I wish I had been more aware of where our hotel was in relationship to the zoo, though.  We pulled it up on the GPS on my phone and found it was about 12 miles away by way of I-90, which is not that far at all.

Once we got going, though, we found that it certainly wasn't going to take us only 20 minutes, like the GPS said.  The traffic in Chicago is HORRIBLE.  HOR-RI-BLE.  Almost as soon as we got on I-90, the traffic started, and it was dense.  There was no way to move from lane to lane and we never broke 10 mph the whole time.  The kids were okay at first... they both dozed off.  But almost an hour later, when we had only gone about 5 miles, Silas woke up in a complete meltdown.  Punkin slept through it at first but soon it escalated into a fit the likes of which I've never seen and she woke up crying, too.  Silas was screaming and crying so hard I thought he was going to throw up and choke.  He wouldn't calm down for anything and both Jasmine and I started to get panicky.  Jasmine was getting claustraphobic and I was starting to have a panic attack.  About that same time, my phone died, and we had no GPS.  So we were stuck in this horrible traffic with a screaming toddler, a crying toddler, no idea where we were and no idea how to get anywhere.  I remembered that GPS told us to get off at Lawrence Street, so we looked out for it, but it was closed due to construction.  Silas was still screaming, so we tried to get off at the next exit, but it was closed for construction too.

Chilling in the car while we panicked on the side of the road.

That's the point I completely lost control.  I was in absolute panic-attack mode.  I could NOT GET OFF THE DAMN HIGHWAY.  There was NOWHERE to go.  No exits were open, no lanes were moving any faster than 5 mph, Silas was having a nightmare meltdown, Punkin was scared, confused and crying, there was no air conditioning in the car and I had no idea where we were.  We finally crept up on a little sidewalk on the right side of the highway and I made Jasmine pull the car off the road so everyone could try and calm down.  I used Jasmine's phone to call my dad in Florida to tell him what was going on while she took the kids out of their car seats to calm them down.  I was on the phone with my dad for almost 20 minutes, trying to tell him where we were and what was going on while he looked Chicago up on MapQuest and gave us some suggestions.  We were only 5 miles from the zoo (according to MapQuest) but going there at that point was the farthest thing from our minds.  We just wanted to de-traumatize the kids and get back to the hotel.  I called Monica and let her know we were turning around.  We finally got back in the car and eased our way back into the traffic, then crept along till we came to the next exit, where we got off.

We found a Dunkin Donuts and pulled in and got the kids some donuts to eat, hoping food would appease them for a while.  I was still in a panic, though, because I knew the only way to get back to the hotel was to get on the same highway going in the other direction, and the traffic looked just as bad over there.  I couldn't take another hour of sitting in the car with screaming kids in the back.  I called my dad again and he gave me some more tips (gotta love my daddy!) on how to get back to the hotel from where we were.  The kids had been fed and they seemed to be happier and I was calming down a bit, so we got back in the car to head back to the hotel.

THANK THE GOOD LORD JESUS ABOVE, we hit a major detour on our way back to I-90 and managed to miss the majority of the traffic on the highway heading back.  It only took us 15 minutes to get back once we got going.  We got the kids upstairs and into the bath (they were a mess from donuts) and then dressed for bedtime.  We called Monica and asked if she wanted to bring Elodie up for a pajama party and she did, so the three kids ran around the hotel room together till bedtime while Jasmine and Monica kept a close eye on them - I don't know if it was stress related or what, but I had developed a fever and a stomach bug and was curled up in bed trying not to die.  After Monica and Elodie left, Jasmine and Silas crawled into their bed and Punkin and I snuggled into ours.

I wish the day had turned out better, because I was really disappointed about the zoo.  Punkin had been asking about seeing animals for days and I didn't even get a chance to show them to her.  It was really nice being able to meet Monica and Elodie though!  I've now officially met 4 women from the BZ board - Jenn and Evan, Genia and Bryson, Monica and Elodie, and Jasmine and Silas!