Where to begin with this trip? Let's start prior to leaving. I knew this would be a longer than normal car ride so I tried to plan something fun to pass the time. I went shopping at the Dollar Tree and found things that would be fun to do in the car. I wrapped each item and numbered them. Once we left for Chicago, I would give both children a present to open that would hopefully keep them "somewhat" occupied for 20 minutes. Once the timer on my phone went off, they would each get another present to open. So we started our car ride and the first present they opened was a coloring book with crayons. The crayons were in a cup so they could just put them in their cup holder and have easy access. I took a lot of time to organize this in my head. Of course we get to Lincoln and Ryker vomits multiple times ALL over himself. You've got to be kidding me!!! We pulled over to the side of the road and got him cleaned up. What to do now?!?! He had a virus about a week and a half ago so I didn't think he was truly sick. Then it hit me that maybe he's motion sick. It would make perfect since because he was looking down focusing on his coloring book and his Mommy gets car sick very easily. We decided to keep chugging along since we knew we couldn't get our money back on the hotel. I didn't want to give him any more presents because I wanted him to focus on the drive (there goes my FUN idea of the presents). We made it to Bloomington and found the nearest Walgreens to get Dramamine. Luckily, they just started carrying it for little ones. Bad news...Ryker wants nothing to do with taking it. We drove to the nearest McDonalds to stop for lunch. I was able to sneak it inside a french fry. SUCCESS!!! We continued the rest of the way without anymore vomitting. :) FAST FORWARD...After our trip we went to the doctor because Ryker vomitted again later in the week. He had a slight concussion from falling off the counter...not motion sickness! YIKES! He said there was nothing we could have done; which made me feel much better.
We arrive and Brad decided to park across the road from our hotel. PARKING IS RIDICOUSLY EXPENSIVE HERE! Even the hotel expected us to pay a crazy amount of money each night for parking. Shouldn't that be included with your hotel?!?! Guess I'm used to St. Louis! Each time we want our car we have to wait fifteen minutes because they send a guy up the elevator and bring our car down on this gigantic elevator. Then we go to get a cart to put our luggage on and they won't let us do it by ourself. They said for liability reasons. REALLY!!! Of course that means we have to tip him! Once he brings our things to our room, he stays and talks FOREVER! Come on guy...I know you're trying to make a nice tip! Our room is suppose to be a little bigger than a normal room; however, it's much smaller than the "normal" room size we're used to in St. Louis. This trip hasn't started off very well. Next, we found out they don't have air...just a blowing fan. And they don't even have a bathtub to give our kids a bath...just a shower (which isn't going to work for a two year old). |
