the_rck

I’m trying to figure out what to do when in Chicago. Cordelia just assumes that it will magically work out because what else are parents for? Scott’s exhausted and busy and doesn’t have time to talk about plans, but he’s the one who’s going to have carry out the majority of the plans, especially if I stay at the hotel one or both days.

He wants to do shopping/wandering around on Monday because it’s supposed to rain Tuesday which would make wandering around outside unpleasant. I’m wondering if I could face the mass transit system on my own in order to join them at dinner time that day or to spend the early part of the day with them and go back to the hotel when I start to tire out too much. (I’m less enthusiastic about the latter option because of the risk of me being too tired and/or anxious to get back on my own.)

Maybe I send them to the Willis Tower first thing on Monday and then they wander around after? I kind of suspect that Cordelia will find wandering around a bit less fascinating than she thinks she will. We’ve suggested three possible places for wandering around, but we can’t persuade her to look at websites and decide which she prefers. Scott’s only interested in so far as Cordelia is.

I’ve been looking for reviews on various destinations in terms of wheelchair accessibility, but I can’t find anyone at all talking about renting/borrowing chairs onsite and how well that works. I only found a handful of review at all, and all of them focused on accessible entrances and restrooms and elevators. All of which are hugely important but don’t address the problems I’m likely to have or things like how crowded it gets and whether that affects access to exhibits. I found one review of Shedd that indicated that it’s nearly impossible to get close enough to see anything in a wheelchair when it’s crowded, but nothing about Field or Science and Industry. I wonder— Is it that people who borrow wheelchairs don’t want to talk about it online? Am I using the wrong search terms?

I’d like to know how hard it’s likely to be for Scott to push the chairs each place has. I’d like to know if they have many that are wide enough for me to sit on and how many they have total. How often do they run out? Is there a time that’s better/worse for getting a chair? None of the places allow reserving chairs in advance.