We arrived at our hotel around 11:30pm. Pulling into the parking lot, we immediately realized that this wasn't at all what we had thought (Have you ever seen a hotel in a strip mall? Me either! Not until now, anyway!). We already had reservations and knew that it would be fine - just as long as they had beds for us to sleep on, free breakfast in the morning, and a pool for us to hang out at tomorrow while Erik was interviewing.
Erik went to check in while the kids and I waited in the car. He came back a little while later with a concerned look on his face (which I thought was a joke, just to scare me into thinking that something else went wrong, the perfect ending to the day). Well, somehow during our hotel search the night before, we accidentally picked a hotel with NO POOL!!! Ahhh! How could we have done that?!! Erik checked with the front desk and there was also a cancellation fee that was pretty spendy, leaving us with no other option, but to stay here (especially since it was getting close to midnight).
How could we break this news to Maida (who was, thankfully asleep)? She had been looking forward to this trip for a week and talking about going swimming all day. The pool was what we bribed her with on the crazy car ride here! How in the world could I break this little girl's heart???
After the stress of the day finally had gotten to us, and the pressure and nervousness of Erik's upcoming interview hit, Erik and I tried to play the blame game in the parking lot. Then we decided just to be cranky and whisper-yell at each other (the kind you do standing outside, in the middle of night, in the front of a hotel where hundreds of people are sleeping). We finally made it to the room (a very small room with only one bed and a "sofa bed," which reminded me more of the chair-type beds that they have in hospital rooms for guests to sleep on.) Erik sat on the "sofa bed" and his bottom went right through. I quickly decided that the mattress was going on the ground and getting there fast since we had kids to get to sleep.
After getting all the kids to sleep (and avoiding the swimming pool topic wih Maida all together), I gave Erik a back massage (we forgave each other) while he studied a bit and then Erik crashed. With everyone asleep, I sat and tried to decide what in the world I was going to go do tomorrow, by MYSELF, in CHICAGO, with THREE KIDS (and a little girl who was planning on swimming all day long). When he found out that there was no pool here, Erik had suggested that I just take them all to Bally Total Fitness to swim (Ha - can't you just imagine that?!). His second suggestion had been to go to the science museum. Not a bad idea, however after the day we had traveling here, I really didn't know if I felt comfortable venturing around the city of Chicago any more than I had to, just in case something else decided to go wrong. I also didn't want to spend the $30-$40 for admission. Aha! While thinking about the cost of admission, I got an idea... what if I could get another hotel room, WITH a swimming pool, for about the same price as admission? Then we'd have somewhere to hang out tomorrow, a pool to swim in (Maida wouldn't even have to know that the first hotel was a mess up!) and we could stay over night if we were too tired to drive home after the interview. I got online and immediately started browsing...
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