I arrived at Lora's at 7:30 A.M., took Meadow to Easter Seals at 2:00 P.M., and came home at 3:30 P.M. to eat dinner and pack.
We loaded everything we would need for several days into Lora's Red Truck, loaded the kids, and left her house at 9 P.M. We are traveling to Wheeling, Illinois, and staying at the Westin Hotel for The Magic Foundation Convention.
The cost to attend the Convention for Non-members is $160.00 per family, and for members, it is $125.00 per family.
The hotel costs $103.00 per night, and we stayed on Friday and Saturday nights.
MAGIC's 13th Annual Education Convention is the only program of its kind in the world for parents, grandparents, caregivers, medical professionals, and affected children.
More about Medical conditions/growth disorders.
When? July 19-22, 2007
Where? Westin Hotel, Wheeling, IL
Sponsored by: The MAGIC Foundation 6645 West North Avenue Oak Park, Illinois 60302.
We traveled 72 east to I-65 north through Nashville, Tennessee, Louisville, Kentucky, and Indiana.
Day 2: Thursday, July 19, 2007
We stopped at a rest stop in India at about 2 P.M. and slept in the truck until 5 A.M.
I drove for a few hours on I-65 north while Lora and the kids slept.
Lora took over driving around 7A.M., and the kids never woke up.
We stayed on I-65 north until we neared Chicago, where we took I-90 north.
We arrived in Chicago, IL, at about 10:30 A.M. and stopped at Grandma's Waffle House for breakfast.
I ordered a pecan waffle with peaches and Cool Whip, Madison ordered blueberry pancakes with coffee, and Marcus ordered a waffle with coffee.
Meadow ate an egg, and Lora ordered a waffle with blueberries on the side.
Our bill was $29.95.
We arrived at "Westin Inn" around 12:00 P.M.
The hotel was prepared for the event. Door attendants were everywhere, waiting for cabs, cars, or other forms of transportation to unload luggage and help carry it upstairs.
Lora went inside and checked us into room 332.
The room had a Heavenly plush king-size bed, a cot, and a crib.
Some amenities included an indoor swimming pool, hot tub, wireless internet, hair dryer, mini bar, iron board and iron, coffee maker, and in-room safe.
The Westin is located on Chicago's north side, at 601 North Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60090. Its telephone number is 847-777-6500.
After we unpacked and settled in, we all took showers, changed clothes, and went downstairs to the conference room to register. Lora was given a packet containing all the schedules and highlights for the entire weekend. We are given name badges (which are required) that are color-coded according to the medical condition of each child. Your leader will be wearing the same colored tag as you.
Then we went into the Ballroom / Exhibit Hall, where display booths were set up with information about their products and samples to help our kids.
Booths are manned by professionals who can answer your questions about growth hormones and the pituitary gland.
I took a survey about growth hormones, and the vendor gave me three white towels.
One vendor gave Meadow a giraffe, which she threw down.
A picture of Meadow's face was put on a magnet.
A man was airbrushing T-shirts with the child's face and name on them.
Other vendors gave out pens, pencils, magnets, balloons, and edible treats. One was selling bobbleheads on DVD.
There were booths for face painting, magicians, and many fun activities for the kids.
I don't know if all the vendors were mentioned.
Lora and I went in two different directions and talked to other people about their families.
I talked to an oriental woman named Shirley; she was helping with the conference.
Shirley had one perfectly healthy son.
Shirley was helping greet guests and pass out something to everyone attending the Mexican event on Friday night.
Marcus waited in line to have his picture sketched.
There was food set out at a snack bar, including watermelon, musk melon, cantaloupe, cookies, candies, and several different kinds of drinks.
We collected different items from the vendor, and everyone started piling them on Meadow's stroller.
I asked one of the vendors for several bags to organize the items on Meadow's stroller.
Lora and the kids went swimming in the indoor pool on the first floor around 9 P.M.
I gave Meadow and myself a bath, put on our pajamas, and we went to bed.
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| Registration night |
Day 3: Friday, July 20, 2007
Lora paid a chaperone for a kids ' day Trip for Madison and Marcus.
They will take a bus to the Lincoln County Zoo all day, leaving at 8:30 A.M.
Lora, Meadow, and I went down to the lobby for breakfast, where Lora ordered Meadow an egg.
We walked next door to the coffee shop, where we ordered an oatmeal cookie, a slice of chocolate cake, a cup of dried fruit, and two glasses of unsweetened tea.
There was no charge for the Meadow egg because the restaurant took too long to cook it.
It was a large serving, enough egg to serve Meadow for several meals.
We were late to the first seminar, which started at 9:00 A.M. We arrived closer to 10 A.M. because he had to take Meadow to the DayCare Center.
The seminar on the pituitary gland began at 9 A.M. and ended at 5 P.M.
The class is an intro to Pituitary. The speaker is Dr Gaffer
Dr Gaffer also seeks breakouts for congenital and acquired.
The following speakers are Dr. Perry and Dr. Burt Solozano in the Intro to Hypothalamus course.
The last speaker is Dr Lustig, who is on Emergencies.
Questions & Answers by Dr Gaffer.
We had a lunch break from 12–1 P.M., and Lora and I ate outside.
Lora and I split a turkey sandwich to drink, Lora had water, and I drank a Diet Coke.
The prices were outrageous; candy bars were $2.00, potato chips were $2.00, and it cost $18.00 for a sandwich, two drinks, two candy bars, and two chips.
After the class, we picked up Meadow and headed to the front lobby to wait for Madison and Marcus, who had just returned from visiting the Lincoln County Zoo.
Marcus bought a gorilla at the zoo, Madison purchased a fan, and both had their faces painted.
Lora took the kids to our room on the third floor to freshen up while I went to a grandparent's meeting that lasted until 7:00 P.M.
After my grandparents' meeting, I went to the lobby and waited for Lora and the kids.
The community for The Magic Foundation had prepared a Mexican Fiesta for everyone attending the conference.
We entered the conference room at 7:30 P.M., and we were given a sombrero to wear for the fiesta.
The tables were covered with white tablecloths, and we could choose where we sat. We stood in line to choose from the long buffet of various Mexican dishes that had been prepared.
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| Mexican Fiesta |
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| Mexican Fiesta |
Different groups were doing Mexican shows and Mexican dances.
At the show's end, a piñata was hung from the ceiling, which many children could hit until the candy started falling onto the floor.
After all that fun, Madison and Marcus still wanted to go swimming; I lasted about an hour at the poolside, then I took Meadow upstairs, and we went to bed.
Day 4: Saturday, July 21, 2007
Lora and the kids slept soundly until 11:30 A.M., but not me. I was up, took a shower, and went for a morning walk outside the hotel.
I walked along the hotel's sidewalk trail, which led to a garden filled with flowers, shrubs, and a pond with two water fountains spouting from the middle. I got several great photos of the hotel from the garden. I walked along the front of the hotel by the highway, where I took a picture of a red and white water tower that read WHEELING, and another of the sign that read WESTIN. I walked back inside the hotel and back to our room. Meadow was awake by that time, so I dressed her.
The Magic Foundation held a silent auction the night before, and all bids had to be in by Saturday morning.
Lora bid on a pair of jeans and six pieces of clothing for Meadow, winning the highest bid on them.
I bid on a radio and a paper shredder, but was not the top bidder.
Lora bought every one of us a white sweatshirt.
Marcus wore his to bed and spilled coffee on it.
We rode to Target for diapers and snacks and ate lunch at McDonald's.
Then we rode to downtown Chicago to Navy Pier.
We rode to Navy Pier in Downtown Chicago, IL.
We took East Lake Cook Road for 5.5 miles, US-41 for 4.9 miles, and I-94 east for 16.2 miles. We then took the East Ohio Street exit number 50b, turned right onto North Orleans, and then left onto West Illinois 1.3. We then turned right onto Grant Avenue, which goes to Navy Pier.
We parked in the Navy Pier parking deck, which cost $20.00 daily.
As we entered the mall, a woman greeted us and told us to pay for our parking.
Lora paid for parking, and we went looking for a restroom and had to wait fifteen minutes to use it.
A show was going on in the middle of the mall. It was located just outside the restrooms and near McDonald's Restaurant.
And we stopped to watch after everyone finished in the restrooms.
We saw a man in a shaggy dog suit and a pirate costume dancing around on the stage.
He picked Marcus to come onto the stage and follow him with the other children.
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| shaggy dog |
We walked into the Children's Museum gift shop, where we rode the elevator to level two to the Children's Museum, where the kids did crafts, worked in the tinkering lab, walked through the skyline, climbed in the treehouse, played in the Allstate Foundation play it safe, dug in the dinosaur expedition, and climbed the wall, made show pictures on a big green screen, played dress up of a grasshopper, butterflies, skunk, they climbed through tunnels. Finally, they tried to keep a hula hoop around their waist.
We stayed at the Children's Museum for about two hours.
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| Children's Museum |
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| Children's Museum |
Everyone was getting hungry, so Lora called Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company to make reservations. They said there would be a 40-minute wait.
So we walked over to the largest ferry wheel in the world, which Lora wanted to ride, but no one else did.
Meadow was trapped in the blue train car and rode around several times with three other children.
After the train ride, we purchased tickets for the 6:30 P.M. Skyline Boat Tour.
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| Navy Pier Chicago |
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| Navy Pier Chicago |
We arrived at 4:30 P.M., were led to a table outside, and were greeted by a server who asked questions based on the movie Forrest Gump.
We ordered Cajun peel and shrimp, as well as a sampler platter.
Lora and I both ordered unsweetened iced tea.
Madison ordered a peanut butter smoothie, and Marcus ordered a smoothie.
The peeling and eating of shrimp was messy; we used a roll of paper towels.
Our server asked us some more questions about the movie Forest Gump.
One of the questions he asked was, Which leg did Captain Dan lose?
I replied that he lost both legs.
Another question he asked was about the Hurricane; none of us knew the answer.
The cost of our meal was $49.00, and I paid $40.00.
At 7:00 P.M., we took the Skyline Boat Tour on the Shoreline Boat. Meadow and I rode upstairs, and Lora and the kids sat up front, but later moved downstairs.
The cost for adults was $15.00; for children, it was $6.00, and there was no charge for Meadow.
As we were leaving the Shoreline boat and floating out into Lake Michigan, we could see a panoramic view of Chicago and the Sears Tower. We passed a water taxi, a lighthouse, and a chartered boat. We could see the lights from the ferry's wheel as it turned, and many people were sitting along the pier, dining.
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| Skyline Boat Tour on the Shoreline Boat |
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| Lighthouse |
Sitting behind was a couple that had come with a church group, Jamie and Donna Root.
They were with the "AWANA because kids matter to God."
She gave me her business card that read:
Jamie and Donna Root Missionary Appointees 417-777-6178 jdroot@alltel.net 670 North Russell Avenue Bolivar, Mo. 65613-3367
Sitting next to me was a woman named Sandy. She said that Meadow was a very special little girl and that God gave special children to special people. Meadow held her hand for thirty minutes.
Meadow looked up at me with her loving smile and big brown eyes, "Like she was saying, Granny, I love you, and kiss me."
Sandy said our family moved to Chicago when our children were little, and they can still remember their lives in Georgia.
They could also remember growing up in Chicago, with bitterly cold winters, snow everywhere—enough for them to ski—and frozen lakes where they could ice skate.
Sandy and her husband were with a church group of about 40 non-dominating Christians.
When the ride ended, we said goodbye and returned to Navy Pier Mall.
We returned to the pirate boat's stage, where we watched a show called "The Box Tiger Man."
He was a dark-skinned man dressed in a yellow and black striped tiger suit.
The lanky man took on the shape of a tiger as he bent down, curled his body into a ball, climbed into a square box, and closed the lid.
He was amazing to watch!
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| "The Box Tiger Man." |
We went to the Amazing Chicago Funhouse MAZE, and it was tons of fun inside.
This is the city's first full sensory funhouse and maze.
During our 15-minute walk, we navigated our way through 4,00 square feet of exhilarating mirror mazes and tunnels set in a twisted Chicago landscape.
I pushed Meadow in her stroller once, and Lora went through it two times while the kids went through it three times.
The Family package for the MAZE costs $9.95. You could walk through it as many times as you wanted to.
We ended the day by walking through the Richard Driehaus Gallery of Stained Glass; admission is free to the public.
- There are eleven Tiffany Studios' stained glass windows, which are breathtaking.
- We saw a 1890 three-panel window of Christ and the Apostles.
- We saw aa890 three-panel blue, green window depicting a cclesiastical yellow angel holding a torch.
- We saw 1910 Landscape hues of green, red, and blue.
- We saw 1910 Fields of Lilies, where a woman dressed in a green, yellow, and purple robe stood with her hand crossed over her chest in a lily field. Hues of orange, blue, yellow, and green.
- We saw a 1890 Girl with long red hair surrounded by Cherry blossoms, which were in hues of yellow, green, and red.
- We saw a 1890 guiding angel with a large object on his back, guiding a young woman with hues of yellow, green, blue, and red.d
- We saw a 1920s landscape with a waterfall in red, green, blue, and yellow hues. Blue-green water flowing with red flowers blooming and grapes hanging from above with blue-green sky and yellow clouds.
- To the left, we saw the annunciation window and an angelic being holding a rod in hues of yellow, green, blue, and red. To the right, we saw the annunciation, with her hands crossed and placed on a table next to her.
- We saw The Nativity in 1910. Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. Hues of blue, red, green, and yellow
- In 1892, we saw the Edward Brooks Memorial window, with an angel leading in singing, "Peace on earth, goodwill toward men."
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| Tiffany Studio's stained glass windows |
There was another show outside the stained glass museum, so we stopped for a few minutes.
Lora's friend, Michelle, awaited her at the Westin Hotel.
We missed the 10:00 P.M. fireworks show at Navy Pier.
When we returned to the hotel, the kids put on their swimsuits and went downstairs to the swimming pool, where we stayed until 11:30 P.M.
When the kids finished swimming, we went upstairs and went to bed.
Lora and Michelle went to one of the restaurants inside the hotel and talked until 1:30 A.M.
Day 5: Sunday, July 22, 2007
Everyone slept late because we all stayed up late the night before.
We checked out right before 12P.M.
We called for a bellhop to help us with the luggage.
We checked out, loaded the truck with all our belongings, and rode to Burger King for lunch.
The Magic Foundation had arranged for everyone who had attended the conference to have a free day of fun at the Wheeling Aquatic Park Center.
Lora and the kids went down the tube, and Meadow and I played in the swimming pool.
Wheeling Aquatic Park Center is located at 327 West Dundee Road, Wheeling, Illinois 60090, and its telephone number is 847-465-7665.
It is an outdoor aquatic center with the following amenities:
Volcano Valley has tube and body slides, and Paradise Falls has two drop falls.
Willie the Whale has a toddler slide, and there are lap lanes in the swimming pool.
Kana Courts have sand volleyball, a Grassy area for tanning,
Willie's Coconut Café offers food, a picnic area, and a diving board. Aloha Beach has zero depth at the entry of the main pool.
Kerki Island has a sand play area, locker rooms, and lockers for storing valuables.
Tsunami Splash has a water playground with tipping buckets.
Lily Pad Lagoon has a splash pool with water basketball and a monkey bar activity pad.
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| Wheeling Aquatic Park Center |
We stayed at the aquatic center until 4:30 P.M.
Lora then drove us to downtown Chicago to tour the Sears Tower "sky deck."
The Sears Tower was finished on May 3, 1973, and was the tallest skyscraper in the world until 1996.
It is still the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere. In 1997, it was sold to Toronto-based Trizerhahn for 804 million dollars.
It has bronze-tinted glass and stainless steel. Because of 911, there were many security guards and uneasy workers in the Sears Tower.
You can see most of Chicago from every angle from the top level, with 103 stories to the top.
We took many pictures, and it was an AWSOM view.
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| Sears Tower |
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| View from the Sears Tower |
We walked to Giordano's Pizzeria, across the street from the Sears Tower.
We had to wait 40 minutes for a table and another 40 minutes for our food.
We ordered a deep-dish stuffed medium pizza with sausage, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese, covered in marinara sauce. The pizza was as thick as a medium cake.
Madison enjoyed the stinging mozzarella cheese.
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| Giordano's Pizzeria |
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| Giordano's Pizzeria |
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| Giordano's Pizzeria |
Articles about Giordano's Today Show said," Best pizza in America."
Fox Chicago: "Giordano's deep dish is by far the best pizza in Chicago."
The New York Times said, "The ultimate pizza".
Efren Boglio said, "My brother and I both own and cook for Giordano's, which we opened in 1974 in Chicago, just across the street from Sears Tower."
Lora drove us out of downtown Chicago, leaving about 9:00 P.M. I took over driving for several hours.
Everyone fell asleep except me, and when I got sleepy, we stopped at a Motel 8 somewhere in
Louisville, Indiana, near I-70E.
We were so sleepy that we never inspected the room, which we should have because the beds were falling apart.
That does not matter when you are too sleepy to drive.
It was late, I was very sleepy, and I drove seven miles in the wrong direction.
Day 6: Monday, July 23, 2007
We loaded up the truck the following day and stopped to eat breakfast at Cracker Barrel.
To break up the monotony of driving, we stopped at Mammoth Cave National Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where Lora and the older kids toured the cave.
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| Mammoth Cave National Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky |
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| Mammoth Cave National Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky |
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| Mammoth Cave National Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky |
People in strollers or wheelchairs could not go inside because of the many steps that led down into the cave.
I had visited the cave before, so I stayed behind with Meadow.
Meadow and I crossed a bridge that led us up a path to the Mammoth Cave Hotel. Then, we took a paved trail to the right, passing the lodge. At the fork, we took a left, leading us to the Old Guides Cemetery, where graves date back to 1842.
Two historical markers along the fence surrounded the gravesite.
Old Guilds Cemetery, and the other sign read World Treasure Saved.
I walked a little further down the paved trail, pushing Meadow in her stroller until we came to a sign that read River Styx Springs .6 m. Below it was written Echo River Springs 1.3 m.
I pushed Meadow back to the museum, where we met with Lora and the kids.
It was getting late when we stopped for supper at Logan's in Brentwood, Tennessee.
We arrived home at 11:00 P.M.
