Day 3 ~ From the Mississippi to The Windy City

We began our day yesterday at a bit of a deficiency (a.k.a. a little bit crabby). Our 13 hour drive day on Sunday, only a handful of hours of sleep together with the loss of an hour crossing into the Central Time Zone, left us wanting to crawl back into bed. We were determined though to get going early so that we could make it to Chicago by dinner time.

On Sunday night, as we approached Sioux Falls, we realized that it’s home to the USS South Dakota Memorial. It was only a few miles from our hotel so we decided to make that our first stop yesterday morning.

The USS South Dakota was the ship that Dan’s Pop Pop on his Dad’s side (Thomas William O’Brien) served on. He was a side gunner and faught in almost every major naval campaign in WWII from hunting submarines in the Atlantic to fighting the Japanese in the Pacific.

The USS South Dakota was the most decorated war ship in WWII and one of the most decorated U.S. battleships in history. She was awarded 13 Battle Stars in less than 5 years of service. She decorated herself with more honors and glory than most ships do in twenty to thirty years.

It was a pretty emotional experience for Dan. He walked into the memorial with a lightness in his step and came out quite heavy-hearted. Dan can only recall hearing stories from his Dad about his Pop Pop and his ship. Being in the memorial really gave Dan a sense for how much action and danger this ship encountered and how terrifying that must have been for all of the men aboard it’s decks. Dan’s grandfather at the time was much closer in age to Evan than Dan’s age now. His Pop Pop was only 17 years old when he enlisted and only 18 years old during the war.

In 1947 the USS South Dakota was decommissioned, sold and was to be scrapped in 1962. This was when Sioux Falls attempted to acquire her for a memorial. They were unsuccessful in obtaining the entire battleship, but they salvaged the pieces they could to put a memorial in place. They poured a one foot high concrete barrier to outline the ship’s mass as seen below.

As we left South Dakota and made our way into Minnesota, I will give you one guess as to what sign we did not get a picture of? “Welcome to Minnesota” came and went as I fumbled to take out the camera or grab one of our phones. Why is this so difficult?!? Minnesota proved to be super clean and beautiful with many wind turbine farms each stretching for dozens of acres. We saw several flatbed trucks carrying their parts at different points during our trip. They are absolutely immense.

An update on Evan’s day ~ His group began their day at the Museum of the Bible followed by the Holocaust Museum. This was a tough day for our sensitive soul. Dan and I both remember how emotional the Holocaust Museum was the last time that we were there and we were many years older than Evan when we first visited. Ev truly seemed to struggle with it. This was one of those moments when I wish I was there with him.

The kids also stopped at the Lincoln Memorial, Korean Memorial, Vietnam Memorial and Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. Their day was packed which you could hear in the fatigued strain of Evan’s voice last night. He was anxious to go to sleep and to have a fun day today which meant a “slightly lighter” schedule. They are going to Mount Vernon today which we know that Evan will enjoy as he is fascinated with George Washington and our Founding Fathers. They end their day on a Spirit Cruise on the Potomac tonight which will be a nice treat for the kids. Ev sent us these two pictures from the National Museum of American History which highlights two things that Evan will forever enjoy, cars and Lego’s.

Our big stop yesterday was in La Crosse which is located right after you cross the border of Minnesota into Wisconsin. If you are wondering if we snapped a picture of the “Welcome to Wisconsin” sign, the answer is no. We missed that one too!

We stopped in La Crosse to have lunch on the Mississippi River. This was not on either of our bucket lists but I have to say that both Dan and I were taken back by how beautiful this river was as well as the surrounding area. It also felt great to see water after being landlocked for so many days! We thought that it was apropos to stop at Huck Finn’s as when I asked Dan what he thought of when he thought of the Mississippi River he said Huck Finn, Mark Twain and Davey Crocket so Huck Finn’s for lunch we went! We sat out on the deck overlooking their marina and the river as we ate our first lunch sitting at a table with silverware since our trip began three days ago. They were sweet to Chewy as well bringing out a “Huck’s Pups” water bowl.

We climbed back into the car to make our way out of Wisconsin and into Illinois to which their welcome sign was a blur as we went flying by. We missed that one too.

This was our last memory of clear skies before thunder-magedon set in. Dan captioned it:
“So I says to this guy, the best sausages come from Chicago!” We’ve clearly had too much caffeine.

At about 100 miles outside of Chicago, torrential rain and booming thunder surrounded us. The radar that we were watching indicated that we were going to drive through a pretty large and severe thunderstorm. We passed many unfortunate accidents largely due to the amount of water covering the highway. The rain that we experienced in Montana and Wyoming had paled in comparison to this. The visibility was about 50 feet but that didn’t stop us from seeing Jim Cantore on the side of the road searching for thunder snow. (Kidding!) Did I mention too much caffeine?? The storm followed us into downtown Chicago. It stopped raining as we pulled up to our hotel.

When planning our trip, I searched for puppy friendly hotels. The Kimpton Hotel chain actually advertises that they are puppy friendly. They even host a happy hour that you can bring your doggies too. I was really bummed to have missed that last night. We stayed at the Kimpton’s Hotel Monaco which sat next to Chicago’s Riverwalk and in between two steak houses (A+ for location!). They greeted Chewy with treats, a water bowl and puppy cookies that sat in a cup adorned with paw prints. They even had window seats for furry friends. We titled this one “Little puppy, big city.”

We didn’t arrive until 8:30 last night but it was in plenty of time to order a hot dinner and have a well deserved cocktail to take the edge off of the last three hours of driving. Hotel Monaco gets four stars!

After dinner we all needed a stretch of the legs and I was anxious to see as much of Chicago as we could before having to leave in the morning. We took Chewy on a stroll down Chicago’s Riverwalk which runs along the Chicago River. It was peppered with beautiful boats that were docking for the night after a day of tourist excursions. It was a peaceful and beautiful walk narrated by Dan as he pointed out the significance of all of the buildings and locations that have made appearances in movies over the years. From the famous steps in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off to the architectural beauty that surrounded us, it was a fabulous way to end our adventurous day.

Here is a picture of the area that we strolled along. I took this for Evan as these two buildings were in one of the Transformer movies that he loves. 🙂 We miss him and can’t wait to bring him back to Chicago. He would love it here.

Goodnight, Chicago! We can’t wait to see you in the morning!