Daddy Daughter Day

I take being a Dad very seriously and its extremely important that I bond with my children. Recently I have been spending a lot of time with Midas because he recently started playing on his school’s Basketball team. In the midst of me spending this one on one time with Midas, I thought about Monroe. In Business, I learned the phrase “the squeaky wheel gets the oil.” So far I feel as if Midas and Madison usually get the most attention but Monroe doesn’t get it as often. I realized that Monroe usually does what she is asked when she is asked as it relates to helping around the house and as far as school goes she is a scholar. She never asks for help with her homework, in fact I don’t get to see it most of the time until she bring it home graded. She gets straight A’s in school and doesn’t really feel challenged.

Candace and I noticed that Monroe wasn’t being challenged and we immediately supplemented with the 530 Scholars program. However, I said all that to say because she is doing so well in school and isn’t learning, I decided to take a day off from work so we could spend the day exploring Chicago. I intentionally choose the train for our method of transportation because she has never rode on the train before. I wanted to make the day fun, exciting, and engaging so I customized a Scavenger Hunt Template I found.

We started our day first thing in the Morning and once we got on the train I realized we were going to be close to Monroe’s grandmother’s (Nanny) job. I made an executive decision that our first activity include Nanny. We gave Nanny a ring to make sure it was ok to visit her job. I ended up getting lost so we decided to hop in a Uber. It was the most rewarding experience to see the look of joy on the both of their faces. To be honest, if we had to go home after that, I think she would have still been happy.

After spending some time with Nanny, both of our stomachs were growling. It was time to get something delicious to eat. I decided on this place called Wildberry Pancakes and Café. I chose this spot mainly because of its proximity to the Bean and the Art Institute, which were two activities that were on our scavenger hunt list. Our wait was short, we were practically seated immediately. The menu wasn’t too difficult to navigate either, Monroe was able to find what she wanted to eat with no assistance from me. One of the things I noticed was how diverse the people where and decided to mention it to her as we saw Asians, Indians, Homeless, Latinos, and the list goes on. Monroe wanted a Smoothie, kids size Cinnamon Roll Pancakes with Turkey Sausage and I ordered a Skillet with Pecan Pancakes and a White Chocolate Mocha. It seemed like as soon as our waitress put the order in, it came out immediately. The portions were humongous and needless to say we did not finish our meals. I was excited that our day consisted of a lot of walking to give us a chance to walk off our meals.

After eating, we left for Grant Park which was basically across the street from our restaurant. Unfortunately for us, they were doing some construction which as a result, restricted us from the Bean. As a constellation price, they did have a beautifully decorated Christmas tree we were able to get some great pics with. We decided to waste as little time as possible with Grant Park and we darted off to the Art Museum but along the way we kept getting side tracked. We saw a statue of a Bull which I thought would be a cool depiction of the phrase, “Grabbing the Bull by the Horns”. Next we saw a street which had the same name as my other daughter, Madison and immediately after we ran into the street Monroe. Now I did not plan for all of these shots to be lined up the way they were but I was sure happy they did.

When we arrived at the Art Institute, they had the most amazing statues of Lions. This was a instant Instagrammable photo. After taking a few shots, we finally made our way into the Art Institute. We were blown away to say the least. Now neither one of us are Art Aficionados but we were able to appreciate the creativity of the pieces. The Art Institute has a MASSIVE collection and I think it would take a weekend to adequately navigate your way through. After about 4 hours, our feet were killing us but Monroe was intrigued because she noticed that one of the Selfies on the list was a “Dinosaur Selfie”. She was like “Dad we have to do the Dinosaur Selfie before we go home. I attempted to talk her out of it, but she was determined lol. We decided to leave the Art Institute and we made our way to the Field Museum.

Upon arriving at the Field Museum, from its exterior, it appeared to be much larger than the Art Institute. I was starting to have second thoughts but I decided to power through it because Monroe’s face was lit like a lamp. As soon as you step foot into the Museum, we saw massive structures of dinosaur skeletons, and totem poles, it was awe inspiring. I could remember visiting these places as a student for field trips, but looking back on it, I definitively did not appreciate it the way I do now. I also think it’s a deferent element when you visit in a smaller group. Unfortunately because we were a tad bit burned out from the Art Institute, we did not give the Field Museum the quality time, it deserved. We raced through what we thought were the most interesting exhibits. We both agreed that we need to come back downtown and make it a weekend as oppose to a day, and that way maybe we will be able to really enjoy both locations.

We hailed a uBer and raced back to the Lasalle Street Metra Station. We were so happy to be sitting down and to debrief about the amazing time we had. We pulled out our Scavenger Hunt Sheet to take inventory of all of the amazing shots we got to take. When we got home we were able to mirror our phones on to the TV so we could narrate our adventure to Mom, Madison, and Midas. I cannot wait until our next adventure and I was happy that we got a chance to have Daddy Daughter Day.