The Midwest survived the Cahill family!

Jun 21, 2017
4 min read

So we are winding down the great summer road trip of 2017 and I have found several things to add to the list of things my kids like better than expensive activities! But first, where in the world has the Cahill family been???

We made it to Omaha, NE on Saturday after a six-hour (i.e. eight hour) drive from St. Louis. Omaha is an amazing city! You can walk everywhere, in fact besides a quick Target trip for diapers (I should own stock in Target) we didn't drive anywhere. The weather was beautiful (not the scorching heat normally experienced) and there was even a Starbucks in the hotel lobby (yum - black unsweet tea)! However, Omaha does not have wifi... I am not kidding we could not get service anywhere and I spent a few nights hooked up in the office space in the lobby grading World History assignments :( Besides the radio silence on social media, we had a GREAT time!

I LOVE a walkable city! The only place you can walk in Dville is to the pool! Unless you want to be that scary person walking on 400 and no one wants to be that person. We walked miles and miles everyday and the kids only complained about every 2.3 miles, so not bad. We were able to get to the CWS games, the NCAA Fan Fest, the CWS Baseball Village and the Old Market district. The hotel was great, because it was the same hotel being used by the Gators (this was much more exciting to Jimmy and Jace and I wore my Auburn hat in protest). Just kidding, I got to meet Tim Walton (the FL softball head coach). There would be photo evidence, but Jace took the picture...So we spent the first day getting the lay of the land and acclimating to life without internet (how did I ever grow up without it????)

On Sunday we celebrated Father's Day with a well-thought out restaurant choice. Just kidding, we were so hangry that we took a seat at the first restaurant without a wait. This turned out to be a sound decision because we found a great Mexican restaurant in an underground set of shops. Jimmy went off to earn his trip to Omaha (i.e. work for the ABCA) and the kids and I spent an afternoon fighting the internet, quitting and walking around Omaha. Yes, that's right I took all three kids on a walk and didn't lose a single one! Then it was finally time for the real deal, we bought tickets and experienced our first (well first for Ella, Griff and myself) CWS game. We sat in the outfield bleachers and watched the Gators beat TCU. TD Ameritrade was a fun stadium, it felt like a minor league park and the fans were invested in the game! We were able to spend Monday doing the same things, walking, eating, playing and watching baseball (not a bad deal) and we caught the Fullerton / FSU game. We bought our souvenirs and left Omaha with a few less pounds than we came with!

The time in Omaha went quickly and it was time to move on to Kansas City (but not until we visited Target on the way out)! We did not have a lot of time to spend in KC, but we did make it to Kauffman Stadium. You will notice that I did not say to a Royals game, because that would imply that we watched baseball. NO! Jimmy and I took turns watching our children hit wiffle balls, golf balls and ride on a carousel. Was I bitter? Not really, we might have overestimated how many hot baseball games our kids were prepared to watch within a one-week span! So Jace and Ella both got unlimited Kid Zone bands (an excellent use of $20) and we experienced some cardboard box moments, when you spent time and money on a big gift, only to have the kids play with the box. So instead of fighting it, we went with it and were rewarded with three happy (and tired kids - even Griff was able to get out of the stroller and toddle around at the Kids Zone).

So we left KC and drove and decided we are not willing to drive 12-hours straight through anymore (those days might come again, but not with a 10, 5 and 1 year old)! After sleeping in, eating and stopping at Target (man I love that store), we drove about 5-hours and here we are in Mount Vernon, Illinois. We decided to pick a town with three requirements: local eateries, an outdoor pool and a cool downtown area. So, we got .5 out of 3. Turns out the hotel has an indoor-outdoor pool combo (a win for Jace and Ella), there is a downtown area that will be cool after the current revitalization project picks up steam, and the #2 ranked local eatery is inside the bowling alley. So we ate at Buffalo Wild Wing (again) and actually had a good time playing trivia. Back at the hotel, the kids hit the pool, I caught up via the working internet and we prepared for a soggy ride back towards Dville tomorrow. Will we get home tomorrow? Probably not, because eight hours in the car sounds pretty gross too!

**Updated

Things our Kids would Prefer to do besides the Expensive Activity We have Already Paid For:

Ride on public transportation (in this case a bus)
Go to a pool - any pool, even an indoor pool that feels like it is composed of 100% chlorine
Play in a sprinkler (or in this instance a fire hydrant)
Hang out at a Chick-fil-A playground
Play with a balloon
Hit wiffle balls
Go to a park
Play mini-golf
Eat ANYTHING