The Adventure Continues... Arrival

Things started out well on Saturday morning. George wanted to get started at 8 in the morning. Like a fool I stayed up late knowing I had to get up early but made it to the Compound 1.5 right on time. A couple minutes later we were on the road, all the way up to the Krispy Kreme a couple blocks away. After fueling up on coffee and donuts, we were on our way.

Once we made it to Gurnee Mills (not all that far inside Illinois comparatively speaking), we stopped at the Toys ‘R Us. We needed pullups for the youngest, Kara, as well as needing a stretch of the legs and a trip to the bathroom. We had a look at the toys as well but nothing caught our eye. After this break stop, we were on our way again.

We didn’t stop again until we got to the museum. We didn’t get lost or anything. Our parking ticket stated that we arrived at 10:47. It was a long trip but it could have been worse. The traffic hadn’t been awful and the children had remained distracted. We were there!

The parking structure was three underground levels. We parked in-between the first and second levels. We walked up towards the entryway on the first level. When we entered the museum, we realized this was backwards. The primary entry area was on level three. So, by walking upstairs, we only made ourselves need to take an elevator downstairs again. As we figured this out, we saw Star Wars characters walking through the lobby.

Excitedly we hurried the elevator into getting us downstairs before they got away. George got the camera out and the boys lined up for pictures. C3PO was there and Darth Vadar, Boba Fett, Stormtroopers and Rebel Pilots. It was a nice turn-out of ‘professional’ fans; the sort of people that regularly dress up like this at conventions and such so that they have the costumes and experience to volunteer for things like this. They did a good job of staying in character, especially C3PO.

After getting to meet C3PO, Niko imparted a great truth to me. “They are real robots you know, C3PO and R2D2,” he said, his face completely serious. “I could really tell when I was standing next to him.” Now Niko is 8. He seems to have almost figured out the truth behind Santa Claus this recent Christmas and yet he believes in the droids. I couldn’t tell him otherwise. I started talking to him about droid maintenance. That seemed to work.