Spring Break 2020 Day 3 March 16, 2020

Well, today was definitely a memorable day.  We left Springfield, IL around 9:15 am after having a normal (non-virus affected) Holiday Inn Express breakfast.  It rained the entire drive but we arrived in Indiana Dunes National Park around 1 pm, after a stop at a Taco Bell/KFC along the way.

When we got there, we noticed that they hadn’t yet replaced the state park sign with the national park sign – lame – it was designated over a year ago!

Most of the roads were closed but we were able to go out onto the “beach” of Lake Michigan.  The kids had no idea what the names of the five great lakes were – so sad – but they thought it was pretty amazing that we were looking at a lake, complete with waves and fat seagulls (Ryan’s sitting next to me reading this out loud in a stupid white vegan mom voice and is telling me that I need to call the seagulls “thicc”, not “fat”).

When we got back to the visitor center, it was CLOSED DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS!  So that means that there are no passbook stamps, no hat pins and no magnets.  This is so crazy.  The park should NOT even be a national park.  The whole thing was very disappointing. 

So, we turned back to Chicago.  

We arrived at the Embassy Suites around 3 pm and checked into our corner, city view room on the 8^th floor. The city seemed quiet and this restaurant and bar thing is sad.  We ordered a pizza from Lou Malnati’s then walked around town, mostly Michigan Ave.

We weren’t allowed to go inside the restaurant so Nick had to call when we got there and wait outside for the food to be brought to us. 

Katie texted me that starting tonight at midnight Dallas is doing the same thing with restaurants and bars.  Dallas is also closing down gyms and theaters.

We came back to the hotel, got a free drink from the Embassy Suites happy hour (but we weren’t allowed to congregate down there – we had to take our drinks back to our room) and ate our pizza and salad on the floor of our room – very fun.

Then I changed up the rest of the trip. We were gonna spend three nights here then drive to Ohio to see Cuyahoga Valley NP but I think it’ll be shut down so instead, we’re gonna go back to what the original plan was and head back via Iowa. 

We may go up to Milwaukee then spend the night in Des Moines, Iowa.  We have no reservation for any nights after Wednesday but I think we’ll be able to walk in anywhere we’d like and spend the night.

This is really sad – so many people will now be out of work. 

Despite all of the strangeness, this has been a fun trip.  One thing is for sure – we won’t forget it ever.