Chicago – Things I want to do differently next time

In the interest of continual process improvement, here are some things I want to differently for my next trip.

• I will set up times to meet with friends and family before leaving for the trip.  For whatever reason, I wasn't into planning this trip much.  I thought I could do it on the fly while I was there, and it just didn’t work out that way.  We got to see lots of fun people, but not everyone I wanted to see.

• I will ask family to secure passes to the museums I want to go to through their public library.  Turns out, lots of museums have FREE passes that you can check out with a local library card.  If I had asked my sister-in-law ahead of time to look into getting passes to the Shedd Aquarium for us, we could have saved $70 or so.  As it was, I showed them my HSLDA card to prove I was a homeschooler and got my ticket for free.  

• I will schedule in alternating days of going out and seeing people and places, and staying “home” at Grandma’s and having a lazy day.  Too many days out and about wear us all out. 

• I will look into the price of parking at the departure airport, and figure that in when I am comparing fares.  If you only have one airport available, that doesn’t apply, but usually there are several airports within a couple hours drive.  It can make a big difference in the airfare.  I use www.sidestep.com to compare the airfares from several airports and airlines at once.

• I will consider flying on Southwest because they don't charge for bags (what a hassle).   We managed to pack everything in carry-ons, but my lovely sister-in-law gave me hand-me-downs (happy!!) and I had to ship them home because there was no more room in the carry-ons.

It is nice to be home.  The animals all did fine with our wonderful pet-sitter, and the house looks - well, like it did when we left!  LOL!  Tomorrow, Sher Bear has promised to help me clean so we can make our house "pretty like Grandma's"!

Wish you were here!