Chicago has good mass transportation +2

Assumptions:

• Good means low cost, and high quality. Transportation includes parking. Not all transportation facilities are "public". For instance privately owned parking garages are part of the equation.

Reasons to agree:

1. If you are lucky you can find parallel parking for free around Lincoln Park Zoo.
2. Parking is $1.00 an hour, if you can find any, near Northerly Island. I drove there with 2 bikes in  my car, and my 7 year old son, and we rode to Millennium Park and back. 
3. Kids ride the Metra free on the weekends. 
4. The Water Tower Place Mall does parking validation. 
5. It costs $7 per adult to ride to Chicago Union Station (week-end passes, kids ride free). From there you can walk to a number of places:
1. Millennium Park. 
1. In the summer, kids can play in the fountain. Bring towels, and a change of clothes. It is sort of white trash, but they can change in the bathrooms. 
2. Each time you go down the kids will probably want to look at the bean, and get their photo taken.
3. I should probably walk the whole park once. Their are some statues on the south end I have never seen. 
2. Winter
1. Kris Kringle Market Chicago 
3. We walked, with 3 kids, and 2 strollers, all the way to the Hancock Building. It was a pretty long walk. When we got back to Navy Pear we took a water taxi bat to Union Station, to save our legs, and to make a train.

Reasons to disagree:

1. Sales tax is high in Chicago.
2. It costs $20 at a minimum to park in Chicago. 
3. It cost $7 for a weekend pass. So if you want to go in as a couple it costs $14 just to get there. 

Score: 

• Reasons to agree: +5
• Reasons to agree: -3
• Total: +2

You will probably face many setbacks

Images that agree: (stolen from Megan's Website)

People will take and publish unflattering photos of you

You will get sick

Nothing Last forever

Phil went on vacation, and the mosquitoes like him.

We lost power on vacation and came home to this.

Megan is helping our kids be Creative

Images that agree: (stolen from Megan's Website)

You should try to take pictures with loved one's on Holidays

Reasons to agree:

1. People need holidays

Images that agree:(some stolen from Megan's Website)

2011, Easter

1978 or 1979. Bobbie, Earl, Me, Dad, Bro

Basement sump pumps are annoying +1

Reasons to agree:

1. If you have a sump pump, it will fail. When it fails, is probably during a rain storm, when you need it to work. Crawl spaces in Illinois fill with water, if you don't have a sump pump, for some reason. 

Images that agree: (stolen from Megan's Website)

Our sump pump runs quote often, when it rains, leaving a pond which we tell the kids not to play in.

You should get a membership to The Chicago Field Museum +0

Reasons to agree: 4

1. The Chicago Field Museum has Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus skeleton currently known.
2. A visit to a museum is not as educational as reading a book, but it is educational enough. 
1. Not as educational as reading a book
1. In order for something to be very educational something has to go into depth. Reading plaques in front of stuffed animals is not very in depth. 
2. ... it is educational enough
1. At a museum you get to brows a bunch of topic. I guess the goal is that you find something that is interesting, and then you can go somewhere else and learn more later.
3. With no guided tour you can do whatever you want. You get out of it, like most life, what you put in. Perhaps instead of rushing from thing to thing, find a few things you are interested in and then really experience that thing. Perhaps bring a sketch pad and draw stuff.
4. The Chicago Field Museum is a short walk from Northerly Island, which offers parking for a dollar an hour, so parking doesn't have to cost very much, if you can walk 3/4 to a 1.5 miles.

Reasons to disagree: 4

1. The idea to have self guided tour through a museum was a bad one.
2. The experience of visiting a museum feels so separate from normal life, that it often has no affect on normal life. 
3. Museums need to make a specific call to action, with good arguments. What is the call to action? To become a biologist? To become a fossil hunter? Archaeological? Gemologist? Museums have a very broad charter but they should set very specific goals, shouldn't they? To facilitate research? Is that done better by looking at books, or visiting a museum. Often visiting a museum can become just walking around and looking at "curiosities". Which is fine enough, I guess. Does Khan Acadamy do more education than the field museum? 
4. You may end up going only to have your kids tell you they are afraid to see the "mommies" (ie mummies) and the Animals, because they remind them of death and give them nightmares.

Score:

# of reasons to agree: +4

# of reasons to disagree: -4

# of reasons to agree with reasons to agree: +0

# of reasons to agree with reasons to disagree: -0

Total Idea Score: +0

Don't like the score? It is easy to change the score. Just post a reason to agree or disagree with the overall idea, or any of the reasons and the score will change.

Websites that agree:

1. Laub Life: "Field Museum of Dreams"
2. http://fieldmuseum.org/

Images that agree: (stolen from Megan's Website)

Baby Phil is sort of like a dog

Reasons to agree:

1. He likes to carry things in his mouth (see images below for verification). 
2. He likes to dig in the dirt. 

Images that agree:

Ali Loves the Trampoline, James Loves His Bike, and Phil Loves Pots of Dirt.