A Cruze and A Cruise-Photos From Last Night #gmchiCARgo

The Best of ChiCARgo River Cruze

We had a great time with a boat load of bloggers last night.    It was fun to see so many of The Chicago Moms I'd met before there, and make some new friends, too.   Thanks to all the sponsors for the great food, drinks and goodie bags.   The Uno's Pizza, Garrett's Popcorn, Eli's Cheesecake and cookie dough were super tasty.   

We saw some familiar faces from Chevy and collectively filled a Chevy Cruze with great donations for Ronald McDonald House charities.   And I was thrilled to win tickets for 2 to The Hancock Observatory!    I had a chance to take Du-Jay and a good friend of his to the Willis Skydeck, as a guest of Chicago Trolley and Double Decker a few weeks back.    Sagezilla was at a day long Brownie camp but she was unhappy to miss out.    The older the kids get, the more I find myself saying "It all evens out." when one child gets to do something the other misses out on.    Sometimes it actually does.    She'll be thrilled!

The Wendella Boat Cruise provided so many great photo ops, and Chicago is gorgeous from the lake at dusk.   The evil storms and strong winds forecast for the evening held off till we got home.   Although I must confess, I stayed inside the cozy, lower deck and shot through the windows, instead of braving the unseasonably frigid weather on the exposed top deck.    

I'd still highly recommend it for tourists and locals alike.    Although I detest the word "staycation" and hope to never use it with any seriousness, there's nothing wrong with ChiILin' out in your own town and checking out the cool stuff people travel half way around the world to do here.

Most of all, we can't wait to read and review Melisa Wells' new book.   So much of what comes to our in box is aimed at the toddler set, so as Mama to 8 & 10 year olds, I'm extra jazzed to review a kids' book aimed at tweens and teens.   


I had a chance to chat with Dylan, her good natured, college age son.   He gave me the low down on Camp Wells, their "Mom led" family recreation program, that became the basis for the book.   Amid a sea of blogger name tags proclaiming everyone's Twitter handle, URL and all, my favorite tag of the night was the refreshingly simple one that declared "Melisa's husband".    Gotta love a family with a sense of humor!   Melissa's writing can be seen frequently at the blog, Suburban Scrawl, and now in print with Chicken In The Car And The Car Won't Go.