Family Foto Friday: Abbey, Melody, Miles, Christina, and Bobby!

This is a special edition!  I was hard-pressed to find people in the hostel today, because it's such a gorgeous day (thanks, Chicago, I appreciate it).  I ran into a family enjoying themselves in the 2nd floor lounge, playing pool, basking in the sun, and asking questions at the info desk.  I asked if I could intrude on their quiet time, and they were happy to share their favorite parts of Chicago and tell me about how they got into hostelling (Christina's uncle loves it!); their hometown, Nashville; and the fact that the whole family loves art so much.

Meet Christina, Abbey, Miles, Melody, and Bobby (from left)!  Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee. Welcome!

Christina particularly enjoyed the old Marshall Field's building and told me her suggestion to travelers would be to visit the old Deco building just to ride the escalators up the building and look up into the atrium (and never mind the snooty Macy's salespeople downstairs).  She also loved all the old theaters in Chicago, especially Apollo Theater in Lincoln Park.

Abbey had lots of things she liked in Chicago, but was psyched by the John Hancock observatory (we all are, I think), the Art Institute, and the Money Museum.

Miles had lots of fun on the rides at the Navy Pier, especially the ferris wheel (Chicago skyline at night?  Yes, please!)

Music-lover Melody really enjoyed a Million Dollar Quartet show as well as the Wicker Park area.  She told me that she has two friends she met at rock camp that belong to a band, "Those Darlings", that was playing at the Empty Bottle (how awesome is that?).  The whole family enjoyed the show!  I'll have to check out "Those Darlings" now!

Bobby also enjoyed the neighborhoods of Wicker Park and Lincoln Park (they said they were planning to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo today!) and the "el" system in Chicago.  We started talking about the gorgeous views of the city you get coming into the Loop on the Brown line, and I mentioned that you also get a wonderful view from the Pink line.  Which brought me to recommend the National Museum of Mexican Art to this art-loving family, and they said they might check it out tomorrow!

Thanks for talking to me, friends!  Hope to see you back in Chicago soon!