falling in love again

When we moved to Chicago it was love at first sight.  I've lived in many cities and to this day, my heart still skips a beat when I get a breathtaking view of the skyline.  However, it has reached a point where sometimes I take for granted the city's beauty.  Luckily, having a toddler who has so much to experience, is like having a little tourist and over the weekend we introduced him to Chicago architecture.

One of the beauties of having a small child is introducing them to the unknown.  At this age, the things that have become part of our everyday life for us adults (ie: taking public transportation or walking amidst city skyscrapers) is new and exciting.  So when Liam asked us to take him on a boat, it was a no brainer that we had to take a boat ride on the Chicago river.  The Chicago architecture boat tour is my all time FAVORITE tourist thing to do in this city, but since Liam wouldn't appreciate listening to the history of each building, we opted for a water taxi ride instead (which was also much more cost efficient).

We boarded the water taxi by Sears Tower (I refuse to acknowledge it as its new name) and set sail for Navy Pier.  While taking the water taxi takes twice as long to get from place A to place B, the un-obstructed view of some of the city's best buildings is well worth the ride.

While the purpose of this trip was purely to fulfill my child's desire of riding on a boat, the scenic trip ended up giving me the same butterflies in my stomach I had when we first moved here.  So much of our brief ride reminded me of our first years in Chicago (the brown building on the right was one of our first apartments in the city) and all the things I love about being a city dweller.  It was a great reminder that if you ever lose sight of the great things your city has to offer, play the role of a local tourist - you might just find yourself falling in love all over again!