Chicago Adventures

Thanks Stephanie for getting this Crown 9er blog going. I'm really excited about keeping in touch with everybody. For the most part I'm going to post on this site the same things I do for our website. If you want to catch up or read about Jason's veterinary adventures please visit

Last weekend my parents and I drove down to the Great Lakes Naval Base for Rachel's Boot Camp graduation. Conveniently, the nationwide training center is only an hour and a quarter drive from my home. Her ceremony was Friday morning; highlights involved the parade of states and watching the recruits as they stood for an hour. Later, Rachel told us that the sailor next to her fell asleep standing up and collapsed forward on the recruit in front of him. All of the recruits were not allowed to move, so even though Rachel saw it happening she couldn't stop it and the recruit who was landed on had to simply stand and bear the weight. My mom was the one with the camera, while she didn't catch this action, she taped Rachel swaying back and forth unintentionally as she tried not to lock her knees. Apparently this is such a common problem at graduations that they assign a couple of recruits to quietly walk among the ranks and wake up sleepy recruits or fix locked knees.

Following the graduation we went to Gurnee Mills, a local shopping Mecca for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. My dad then returned so he could work that evening with all of the lucky inmates at the jail. The rest of the weekend my mom, Rachel and I explored northern Illinois.

Saturday we visited the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. This place rocked! It was a beautiful and huge building. They have an extensive collection with a fascinating display of anemone and coral throughout. I was super impressed with how clean all of the aquariums were and how well put together the ecosystems were duplicated for appearance and information. We spent a good six hours looking at and learning. We also really enjoyed a special exhibit with lizards from all over the world. They had a Komodo Lizard there that was a 120 pounds. We learned these "dragons" can eat 80% of their body weight in one sitting, I figured that to be 95 pounds in one sitting for the adult male there! My favorite displays were probably the whales and the Caribbean Reef tank. (The Amazon section was also fascinating with the poison arrow frogs and bird tarantulas.)

Through careful detective work we were able to find a decent place to park in downtown Chicago and manage to drive there and back without any problems. We also learned how to use the free Trolley, but only after walking several miles up and down Michigan Ave. Rachel was dead set on finding the Cheesecake Factory which was at the opposite end of Downtown then the Aquarium. Several blisters later, we finally found it and enjoyed a delicious dinner. We then quickly marched the miles back to the car in order to get her in before her liberty expired. Part of the rules for her first liberty from base involved that she be limited to a 50 mile radius and she had to remain in uniform at all times. Considering she had to keep her all white uniform spotless, this limited some of the activities we could do. It was also key that she make it back to her barracks no later than her curfew, as you can imagine, this made me a bit nervous as the driver but all worked out well.

Sunday Rachel had to clean her ship so my Mom and I went to the chapel on base to have church with the recruits. They had an LDS branch there with a lot of people really committed to serving the recruits. They did everything from allowing them to write messages to be phoned to loved ones to providing the postage for letters. (Recruits do not have phone privilages of their own.) During boot camp, church is one of those few moments where you can relax; this seems to a rare opportunity to write letters and get a break from your division. Following church we met with Rachel and went to the Illinois State Beach Park. My mom and I had packed a picnic lunch the night before so we spent the day walking along trails, taking a nap on the beach of Lake Michigan and getting severely sun burnt. (This had something to do with the inability to really plan the weekend and not knowing sunscreen would be a good thing to bring.) We then sent Rachel back to the base where she will be awaiting her "A" school. This is the term used to describe the school that sailors will go to receive their specific training, in Rachel's case, to become a medical corpsman which is also at the same base by opposite side as the recruit training station. This is a big change in her training considering she will now have the opportunity to call us and have more time on her own. As you can tell from the pictures, we are very proud of her and fully support the decision that she has made to serve her country and further develop her character.

Now that Rachel has weekend time available we hope to be able to work out some more explorations of Wisconsin and Illinois so we'll have to keep you updated as the adventures continue.