We Took the Dog to Chicago

Chicago turned out not to be very accessible for canine tourists, alas.

Luna did seem to enjoy walking the city streets, other than when the noisy "L" was passing overhead. So the big kid got to do a decent amount of sightseeing just by wandering the streets around our hotel and letting Luna sniff all the fascinating urban sniffs:

And although the W Chicago tacked on an absolutely ridiculous $125 pet fee for our two-night stay (which I did figure out in advance of our reservation, but also close enough to it that I'd already reached the "throw money at the problem until it goes away" stage, meaning we decided to just eat the cost rather than rework our entire Chicago itinerary), Luna--and the rest of us!--were super comfy there:

I'm pretty sure this is her first-ever elevator ride!

It's a lousy photo AND I nearly dropped my phone out the window, but look! We could see the Sears Tower from our room!

I know it's not the Sears Tower anymore, but also it is.

It turns out, though, that Chicago's two biggest tourist parks, Millennium Park and Maggie Daley Park, aren't really parks at all, but "parks," and dogs aren't allowed.

Which, before you accuse me of not doing my research beforehand--y'all, I ALWAYS do my research. You shouldn't have to go to a park's FAQ page and dive down to point number five out of seven just to find out whether or not dogs are allowed. 

Anyway, here's us having sneaked Luna over to The Bean regardless of the rules, sitting her down for our family photo:

It was also honestly too hot for dogs there, anyway. Luna only reluctantly drinks water when she's out and about, so we always have to keep an eye on how hot she's getting. Here's her illegally getting a little shade under the Bean!

And don't think that you can just walk across the beautiful pedestrian bridge and go visit Maggie Daley park instead, because dogs aren't allowed there, either! I mean, we definitely did walk Luna across the pedestrian bridge, but we definitely weren't supposed to. We didn't go all the way into Maggie Daley park, though, and somehow we managed to stay out of tourist jail.

I probably would have been very bummed if all the rest of us haven't already been to Chicago several times and seen most of the tourist sites in the area we stayed in. And knowing ahead of time that the "parks" weren't parks actually probably would have been a good enough reason to change our reservation and rebook a hotel in a different, dog-friendlier location.

But ah, well. It's not every dog that can say that they've sniffed the Sears Tower!

Now to leave Luna and her kid back in the hotel while the rest of us go to a concert!

P.S. Want to follow along with my craft projects, books I'm reading, road trips to random little towns, looming mid-life crisis, and other various adventures on the daily? Find me on my Craft Knife Facebook page!