A few stops in Chicago and Wisconsin

While we were in Chicago I wanted to try authentic Chicago deep dish pizzas.  We asked around and did some research and went to a highly recommended place, Gino's East.  Once you order it takes 45 minutes for the pizza to be made, which was a little painful with all the hungry kids.  Luckily they got their good sooner.  Here is Scott with a slice of our "Chicago Fire" deep dish pizza.  Scott liked it.

Here are Anna and I with my pizza - she wanted to braid my hair while we waited.  I did not like the pizza so much.  The crust was really hard and crusty.  It was ok, but I wasn't that impressed and probably wouldn't go there again.  We tried the deep dish pizza at UNOs the next day (a national chain) and I liked that better.  Hmmm.

We really didn't see much in Chicago, but we did drive over and see Lake Michigan.  The kids didn't seem to believe that the lake could look so big it was almost like an ocean until they saw it.  We saw lots of pretty fall colors while driving up to Chicago as well.

And then on to Wisconsin.  Wisconsin is one of the states I have not been to yet.  And now that I have been there I only have FIVE more US states that I haven't been to (North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Nebraska and Alaska).  I was hoping to hit Michigan and Minnesota while we are here in the midwest, but I don't know if we will make it.  Anyway, across the border in Wisconsin we stopped at the Jelly Belly Warehouse to have a free tour and learn about Jelly Belly beans.

We learned the Goelitz candy company (that started Jelly Belly's) started in Belleville, Illinois (right next to where we live) and then moved to Portland, Oregon.  So the kids thought that was neat.  Here we are waiting for our tour.

It's not a factory, just a warehouse, so we drove around the warehouse in a little tram and got to watch little videos and see cool displays at the different stops.  We weren't supposed to take pictures after this starting area, so no pics of our tour.

After our tram tour we got free candy and visited the gift shop where we bought LOTS of candy and jelly beans and got a nice %20 military discount.  They had a candy sample bar so you could try different candy and jelly bean flavors.  My favorite was the chocolate dipped jelly beans.  Matthew bought some Bertie Botts beans and Anna got the sparkly princess beans.  We got a bunch of other stuff too.  Even though it doesn't sound exciting to tour a warehouse, we really liked our visit!!  Scott and I both thought it was better than the Ben & Jerry's factory tour.  :)