CoCo Key

Back in March, my mother-in-law elected to make her 60th birthday party an event that small children would especially enjoy. She hosted her four grandchildren, their parents and her other son at the Sheraton Northwest Chicago, the principal attraction of which is the CoCo Key Indoor Water Resort.

At the time of the booking, the resort was brand-spanking new, and it was quite nice from a child's perspective. The resort's claim to fame is that is always Florida inside the water park, and my experience was reflective of that, although my initial reaction was that CoCo Key was very much like Great America on a crowded summer day. Despite the steep ticket prices (weekend day passes were $34) and the upscale suburban location (Arlington Heights), the crowd was fairly downscale. Although maybe that's just how everyone looks in Florida.

I will admit that my experiences were largely colored by the fact that I was 8-months pregnant at the time and could not enjoy many of the water park's more adventurous attractions. I was looking forward to a leisurely float down the lazy river, but a man repeatedly pulled the "spray a total stranger 10 feet down the river" chain so that I was blasted on the head with a spray of very chilly water and my enjoyment of the park came to an abrupt halt. He was unresponsive when I pointed out my condition and asked him to stop blasting me. After that, I hung out with The Girl on the edge of the zero-depth entry kiddie pool.

The kiddie pool area was quite nice, with a latched gate cordoning it off from the rest of the park. In addition to the zero-depth entry, the kiddie pool area had two slides, some spraying water elements and a high chlorine content. There was also a large screen playing the Disney channel, which is either a nice amenity or a cheap attempt to market to young children, depending on your perspective. The park had poolside cabanas available for rent; these were located along the kiddie pool and were fairly nicely appointed with TVs, refrigerators, mini-safes, and cushioned loungers and chairs.

The Boy had a fantastic time going down the water slides with his cousins and dad. They had a giant tube that went outside the building and back in again. Mr. C. went down it alone and reported that the tube was pitch black on the inside and fairly scary. Another open-air water slide dumped water on waiting patrons every fifteen minutes or so, given the shrieks that punctuated the air every so often. The Boy and The Girl's cousins tried out the lily pad jumps and water basketball in the activity pool.

Towels at the resort were plentiful, although at the time of our visit, they were also left behind in abundance as well, given the mounds of used, wet towels found behind most of the white plastic pool furniture. Although we rented a cabana on the second day, we were left to duke it out for a limited number of pool chairs and loungers on the first day. The park also featured a full bar, where my childless brother-in-law could be found when he was not going down the slides with the kids, and an A&W Root Beer stand, which served up fried goodness in the form of fried cheese curds and hot dogs, and root beer floats -- quite refreshing when you are tired and hungry and shriveled from too much time spent in water.

Househunting

For the record, we are not househunting. And I don't recommend doing it (on the first pass, anyway) with kids. But I do read the Real Estate section of the Trib religiously and also keep an eye out for For Sale signs in my neighborhood. I prefer to look at most houses in an open-house situation, but if the price is good, I've been known to make an appointment with the listing agent to see such properties. This afternoon was one such occasion.

The house was 3 bedrooms, 1.1. baths, on a 37-foot lot in my neighborhood. The listing price is $425K, which is damn good for my neighborhood. The agent told me that the house was "distressed" when he called to confirm the appointment. Naturally, my first question for him when I arrived at the house was why a distressed house was listing for so high. He said that it was a court-ordered price, since the house is an estate sale and the estate is contested. So, basically, the heirs are trying to get as much as they can by selling the house for an inflated amount.

Grossly inflated, in my opinion. Although the agent said that my assessment of the property was too low. Which it probably is, as I am looking at the house to live in rather than to flip. But if I had money to burn to flip it, oh what a world that would be. The first floor living space was huge, with a great big living room and dining room, and a kitchen that, while totally 70s, would give me more usable counterspace than my current kitchen. Plus an eating area and a good-size front hall. All the stained glass windows, however, had been removed. The walls and ceilings, all plaster, were in terrible condition and would need to be gutted, and the floors were all covered by hideous carpetting, although they concealed hardwood floors. The 1/2 bath powder room had vinyl walls, and the upstairs bath, while big, needed all-new everything.

If I wasn't pregnant and didn't have 2 small children, and was a bit more adventurous, I'd be tempted. But the house needs at least $100K in improvements to bring it to the level of comfort of my current house, although with the lot size, it would probably be worth about $200K above mine in the end.

Sigh. Sigh. Sigh. I don't think we are going to find anything that isn't a complete pit for just slightly more than our current house is worth.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

While I do not recommend going to a popular museum on free day right before the start of the holiday season, I definitely recommend what I did today.

Which was to take a walk, with The Girl, around the neighborhood surrounding The Boy's co-op location, on a fine fall morning. She picked up sticks, examined her shadow, checked out fallen leaves, and engaged in other curious-kitty walk behavior. We walked about 4 blocks over to Starbuck's. She got a Horizon Organic Vanilla milk. I had a tall Chai latte. We split one of Starbuck's new breakfast sandwiches. And we had some good one-on-one interaction, with lots of belly laughs on her end. The Girl is the Happiest Toddler Ever.

She walked most of the 4 blocks back to the car by herself as well.

Museum Free Day

Yesterday, The Boy, The Girl and I went to the Museum of Science and Industry. If there is one thing I do not recommend, it is attending a Chicago museum during one of its free days at the cusp of the holiday season. Truthfully, for us, it is always free day at MSI, due to a nice bit of reciprocity among the Chicago Academy of the Sciences, of which we are members through our membership to the Peggy Notebeart Nature Museum. But I had not realized that it was free day at MSI before suggesting to The Boy that we go (rather than freezing our bums off at Brookfield Zoo, as was our original plan for the day). So, we went.

It was crazy-crowded. So crowded that I had a headache within 10 minutes of entering the place. I had the foresight to bring a little backpack with a leash on it for The Girl, and fortunately, The Boy is at the age when he is more terrified of losing me in a crowd than in seeing whatever interests him, so he doesn't wander off. But still, there were so many school groups and daycare groups and out-of-towners and kids-off-of-school and general mayhem that I asked The Boy to recite his name and where he lives (unfortunately, he now says "Chicago," instead of our neighborhood name, which doesn't work so well when you are still inside city limits, but is still pretty good for a not-quite-4-year-old). After The Boy was bumped off the risers in the train room by school-aged children, I was ready to cut my losses and skedaddle. I managed to convince The Boy that we should go and come back another time by calling Mr. C. to meet us for lunch.

Fortunately, I always park on a side street near the museum and never pay the $12 for the privilege of parking in the underground lot, so I was really only out time and a good deal of energy.

After circling the western part of the Loop in search of a metered spot, I finally found one, and ponied up $6 to park on the street for 2 hours. Yikes! But then The Boy, The Girl and I went to visit Daddy's office, and we all went out for a not-very-exciting, but still-very-tasty lunch at Potbelly. Afterward, we walked over to Daley Plaza to see the tree, which will have its official lighting and unveiling on Friday. Despite the incomplete decorations and the metal gate around the area, The Boy was still impressed, and The Girl rocked out to a city worker singing "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" to her.

Suburban Mindset

Disclaimer: I have nothing against the suburbs. I grew up in one. And, at some point, I will probably again become a resident of a suburb of Chicago.

On Saturday afternoon, after retrieving our car, I took The Boy and The Girl out to see their grandparents, who live in the illustrious suburb of Naperville. I told them about my previous evening. They said, "How did you not know that your car had been stolen? Why did you think it had been towed?"

This must be the essential difference between the city mindset and the suburban mindset. Or it could be the difference between driving a nice car and a relatively junky car. It would never occur to me that my car would be stolen in a relatively safe, well-lit neighborhood (even on the Southside); towing seems a much more likely possibility. Plus, who would want to steal my crummy VW wagon? My in-laws assumed that if they had come back to their car(s) to find it gone, it would have been stolen. This might be more likely in their case, as both of their cars are posh.