Nor wind, nor rain, nor city streets can stop these girls!

Introducing girl scout troop 652. Lauren's on the far left hugging her BFF Isabelle. This is the second field trip our brave leader Amanda scheduled downtown. We hopped on the train and headed into the city. I told Amanda she is so brave for getting 11 ten year old girls to the city for the 2nd time. She politely commented "Oh well, it will be a trip they'll always remember". Now keep that comment fresh in your head throughout the rest of the blog. . .

Here they are outside the aquarium- we're making our way to the Planetarium so they can earn their "sky search" badge. There are busses that will drop you off right in front of the planetarium however, none that go straight to & from Union Station, so we hiked it down that city strip along the lake-Chicagoan's know the one I'm talking about.

After learning about ancient sun dials, astrolabes, the planets, (let's all move to Venus- we weigh much less there!), and all sorts of astronomical things we closed the place and said "time to go home!" Much to our surprise, it started pouring rain while we there- POURING and WINDY (hence the "windy city") What are we to do? The gift shop sold ponchos but I wasn't going to buy 11 of them for $8.00 a piece (mind you, I bought myself one) so the kind lady in the gift shop gave the girls garbage bags to wear- yes, garbage bags with which they fashioned a little peak hole in the face. And so our journey began, down the city strip and back to the bus stop. After getting off the wrong bus stop, getting back on, getting off at Oglivie train station vs. Union Station and at the end of a long day when the girls were tired, wet and hungry I said to Amanda, "You're so right. This will definately be a trip we never forget!" Not only did the girls earn their sky search badge, but also their survival badge!

Here goes the troop in the rain- yelling in their little squeeling voices the way they do, all the way through Millenium Park to the bus stop.