Lake Shore Drive

"We're going to Wisconsin," was the mantra last week. We packed, picked up the rental car, loaded it and set off, leaving behind a beloved Malaysian family about to go back to Malaysia the next day.

Indianapolis, Chicago, Madison was our route. We had three destinations in Chicago; Soundvision, Sears Towers and the Halal KFC on either Roosevelt Rd or Devon. We went to Soundvision and got a book for A. Then we attended the Jumaah prayer where I met another homeschooling mom.

"Are they your daughters? Your sisters, right?" she asked me.

"Daughters," I replied.

With a look of disbelief she said, "Well, if you say so."

We got to chatting and exchanged contact information. Then we went on our way to Sears Towers. Of course we weren't going in it, for it costs about ten bucks per head. We drove past it and headed for the lake.

We had quite some time to spare because we set out early from Columbus. It was the plan to drive around in Chicago before we had to go to Madison. It was a 6 hours drive from Columbus to Chicago and another 2 from Chicago to Madison. We had time to kill, so we parked and romped on the beach.

The kids were ELATED! They had never been to a real beach except for the time when we went back to Malaysia and went to Langkawi. However, only S went to the beach with hubby then. The rest of us were stuck at the hotel. It wasn't quite a beach but pretty close. While we were looking at the scenery, N became engrossed in the soft smooth sand.

"N! Come and look atthe water!"

We called her countless times. She paid no heed and played with the sand. Head down, donning a blue hijab, she squated down and let the sand run through her fingers. H on the other hand began running all over the place. S hovered between running and playing with the sand. I felt content to see them enjoy such a simple thing. The wind whipped at my hijab, and I revelled in the scenery that pressed me to send my camera into overdrive. However, we didn't stay long, which was quite a pity because I could have forgoed Madison for a longer time at the lake.

When we arrived in Madison, N and H kept saying,

"I want to go to the beach again."

On the way back to Columbus, we passed Chicago, but we had to return the car by 6 pm, so we didn't have the luxury of stopping by Lake Shore Drive again. It was rewarding to see the joy and elation in their faces. I hope we can go there again insyaallah.