Well, we’re off. I guess technically, as I write this, we were off this morning and are currently there. Quick recap of the day:

We got up at a regular time, and while Carolyn was feeding Joel, I made a quick trip to Kroger to pick up some things for the trip. I felt so bad about paying full price for the stuff, that I had to get some free Tabasco sauce and free Suave to make me feel better 🙂 . But when I got back home I realized I had forgotten the donuts for the trip. So after we were all packed up, we had to head back. It turned out to be fine, because that put us at the AAA office right at 9:00 when they opened (actually like 9:04). Despite the fact that there were a full *4* employees there, it took me like 10 minutes before someone came to give me my freakin maps. And then another guy that got there after me tried to cut in front of me with the whole “I just have one quick thing” line. After I kicked him in the face told him I just had one quick thing too, I got the maps.

We were officially on the road about 9:15 am. Took the Ronald Reagan to 74 into Indiana. Made our first stop at a Borders on the north side of Indianapolis. I thought we were going to get there right when it opened (we got there at about 10:03 a.m. due to the time change) but they opened at 9. I had some Borders gift cards from a Garnier coupon deal and also a 25% off any CD or DVD coupon that expired today. We got the Seinfeld Season 4 DVD and Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban.

Next step was a park that I had found in the middle of nowhere. Rensselaer, Indiana to be precise. It was actually very good, not even including the fact that was in the middle of nowhere. It had a pool (we didn’t swim, much to Amy and Scott’s dismay) and a very nice playground set (nicer than Sellman). There was also a geocache there, but I didn’t bring my GPS (intentionally). It was one of the types that are easy to get to but kind of hard to find (because it blends in with its scenery in some way). I tried to find it (not very hard) but didn’t.

We rolled into Chicago about 3 pm. I decided to take 90/94 into downtown to avoid the I-294 tollway. I figured that traffic wouldn’t be that bad at 3 o’clock, but, um, I was wrong. I’m not sure if traffic would have been as bad on 294, but there were a few accidents the way we went and it was pretty slow going. The last bit Scott was whining about getting there (“Go faster, Mommy), Joel was screaming his head off, and Carolyn was digging her nails into the steering column. Once we got a bit out of downtown on I-290 West traffic eased a bit and the last stretch was pretty quick. Made me feel good about taking public transportation while we’re here at least! One interesting sight that we saw was someone pulling a horse trailer. That’s not that interesting, but the horse had his head out the back (think like a pet dog does). But since a horse is much bigger, it was really close to getting hit by traffic in the next lane over. An interesting sight to be sure.

So then we got to the hotel. As we were driving there among the aforementioned madness, Carolyn was wanting to know if for sure we had reservations. I told her they better not go all Joseph and Mary on us! If you didn’t get that reference, don’t worry, Carolyn didn’t at first either (though she was under lots of stress) – the joke kind of loses itself if you have to explain it. But when I got there, there was a sign that said “Welcome to our Marriott Rewards members checking in today” and had ‘Dan M’ listed on the sign so I knew I was golden.

I have to say that this hotel has been the bomb. Things that I have liked about it so far:

• Free hospitality hour from 5-7 p.m. This is code for free dinner. Tonight it was Little Caesar’s pizza buffet. Not only that but when we went back for some more at like 6:45, the guy was like hey we have tons – come back at 7. So we did and he gave us 2 whole pizzas!
• The room is nice – 2 bedrooms rock. Right now it’s not 8:00 and the kids are in their rooms. Not quite asleep but hey! Scott and Amy had a blast swimming in the pool too.
• If you give them a shopping list by 8 AM, they will go buy groceries for you and put them in your room the same day, at no extra charge (besides the cost of the food). I thought I’d try to send them out with some coupons and see what they do about that 🙂
• Free high-speed Internet, by which I am writing this. Not only that, but when I asked if there was more than one hookup (the only one appears to be in one of the bedrooms which would be no good since Amy and Scott are currently in there), they were like “Oh just go tell them at the front desk and they’ll give you a free wireless hookup.” So boom here I am typing in the main room. (I borrowed a laptop from work)
• Free hot breakfast in the mornings.

Anyway, that’s about it for now, we’re going to go watch some movies now. More tomorrow!