We arrived at Bird’s grandparent’s place around 10 pm on Wednesday night after driving through a wicked thunderstorm near La Crosse. Nice to be safe and sound in bed while the thunder and lightning lit up the room and shook the house. It was quite a storm, dropping 4.5 inches of rain overnight.
Total spent on Wednesday: $25.45 on gas before we left and $10.82 at McDonald’s along the way.
Grandma made us a great breakfast Thursday morning and then we were off to Wisconsin Dells. I haven’t been there since I was a little kid and it has changed a lot. Bird’s grandparents used their pull to land the four of us free tickets on a Wisconsin Dells Boat Tour. We tipped the guide $5.
Standing Rock
This dog jumps from rock to rock. It’s awesome.
After the 2 hour boat tour (gorgeous weather by the way), we had lunch and then headed off to play mini-golf. I lost to Gramps by 3 strokes but beat Bird by 1 stroke! So far no money spent on Thursday. Grandparents spoil us.
After golf we stopped by the outlet mall and things got a little crazy at the Banana Republic outlet. Between Bird and I we ended up spending $174.04 but we got a lot of clothes (I got 4 shirts and a new wallet) and we ended up saving $165 off the original prices.
We stopped at the grocery store for dinner supplies and we paid $1.06 for the Redbox movie while Grandma bought groceries. We got When in Rome which was pretty terrible.
Thursday night was a great night full of lasagna, learning new card games (hand & foot) and watching the movie.
On Friday morning, we walked the dog together and grabbed breakfast at a little deli in town. Again, Grandma’s treat. Then it was time to continue on to Chicago for the 4 pm wedding.
We left with plenty of time but by the time we hit Chicago traffic (way outside of Chicago), we were getting a little nervous. Check in at the hotel was 3 pm and we arrived around 2 but the hotel didn’t have any rooms ready, so off to Jimmy Johns for lunch $17.21. By the time we finished our late lunch, the hotel had our room ready and we got prepped and headed off to the wedding.
No air conditioning in the church, but other than that, a great wedding and a great night of fun.
Total spent on Friday: $29.40 at the gas station (gas/snacks), about $5 on tolls, $17.21 for lunch and $50 for a wedding gift
With the wedding festivities over on Friday, we planned on spending Saturday in downtown Chicago. We hit Dunkin Donuts in the morning (I know, we ate great didn’t we?) for about $10. Then train tickets to downtown ($4.50 each way so $9 total). Plus $4 for parking at the train station.
We got downtown and it was HOT!!! Such a hot day…long story short…we spent most of the day trying to keep cool or complaining about the heat. I don’t know what else we could have done, but we were ill-prepared.
They were shooting Transformers 3 downtown, so that was kind of fun. We didn’t see anyone famous, but we did see some guys running around by some cameras.
Spoiler alert: At some point in the movie, there is an upside down city bus.
We ended up going on an Architectural Boat Tour which was pretty cool. A friend came with us and we paid for her, so the boat tour was $91.56 for the three of us. Every time we went under a bridge, the shade was like heaven.
After the tour we headed to Navy Pier for air conditioning and lunch. $26.98. Then we walked to Millenium Park and took pictures with the bean.
Cloud Gate (the bean)
We spent the afternoon wandering the stores on Michigan Avenue to cool off and then we split with our friend at dinner time. Bird and I had reservations at Bin 36. I had the swordfish. It was delicious. Unfortunately, I think the heat put a crimp in our day and dinner was probably less enjoyable than it could have been although because we were so exhausted but it was still fun. $114 for dinner and wine and cheese flights.
Grabbed the train back to the hotel and crashed with what was probably heat exhaustion.
Sunday morning we packed our bags and headed home. $13.42 on breakfast, $30 on gas, $5 on tolls again, $2 for ice cream at McDonald’s.
Two nights at the hotel was $230 after using the name your own price feature on Priceline. I used credit card miles to pay for it, effectively canceling out the largest expense of the trip.
In conclusion, it turns out Wisconsin Dells was more fun than Chicago which isn’t what we were expecting but it was a pleasant surprise! So good to spend some time with Bird’s grandparents…and there will be future trips to Chicago I am sure.
Total spent: $628 but $175 of that was on clothes and $50 was for the wedding gift. So really only about $400 of it is going to come out of our Travel Fund which is important because I have a travel update coming up in a future post.
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Fun trip and not bad in terms of spending for a weekend away! It makes me want to go to the Dells…& I still love Chicago!
As a Chicago resident, I’d recommend visiting either in late spring or late fall for the best views of the city and most comfortable temps for walking around. We know how to do winter here well, too, so if you’re game, come sometime right before Christmas to go to the Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza for good German food, beer, the giant tree, and a little shopping for amazing handmade goods. The iceskating at Millenium Park is free if you bring your own skates and an absolute blast, and if you get cold, there are countless great coffee shops and cafés worth checking out. Winter in the city is probably my favorite!