Day 9: Maqouketa Caves State Park IA to Indiana Dunes National Park IN: Sea Lions and Chicago Skylines

With our adventure at the halfway mark, we headed into our first big city. With heavy rainfall and flash flood warnings for the part of Jackson County we were in - the bathroom at the Maquoketa Campground played the National Weather Service ratio station on repeat so we were well aware of the impending bad weather - we crossed the state line into Illinois for a whirlwind day in Chicago.

Our first stop was the Shedd Aquarium. We love a good aquarium and Shedd is one of the best! We explored all the fish and sea creatures. We petted a sturgeon, star fish, and stingrays. The highlight of the day was the behind the scenes sea lion encounter where we met the aquarium’s four sea lions and helped with their training. It was pretty incredible. The sea lions shook our hands, laid down to be petted, spun, jumped up, and roared (as loud as a real lion)! We even posed for photos with the herd leader - a 400lbs gentle giant who grinned, stuck out his tongue and waved. The boys were amazed.

We then did some sightseeing in the city, taking in the Millennium Park fountain, the Bean, and the Chicago river and skyline. It was still 30 degrees out so it was really, really hot!

We had to wait for a table at Lou Malnati’s for deep dish Chicago style pizza so we started with dessert with a pit stop at Ghirardelli’s chocolate shop. We shared crazy expensive but super delicious ice cream sundaes. Dinner was the boys’ first introduction to deep dish pizza. It was a huge hit.

Driving out of Chicago we stopped for gas in Gary, Indiana. A far cry from the utopia portrayed in the Broadway classic, the Musicman, we were surprised to see a large number of abandoned buildings. A quick Google search revealed “Gary did experience a period where it had one of the highest per capita homicide rates in the US, fueled by factors like gang activity, drug trafficking, and the decline of the steel industry” - having in the recent past been labeled “the murder capital of America”. Yikes! We gassed up and got out!

We moved on, finally reaching our sleeping destination of Indiana Dunes National Park around 9 pm, where we have planned two days of rest and relaxation.