Things to Do in Chicago with Dogs: "Secret" Chicago Air & Water Show

The one summer event the entire city is involved in, whether we like it or not, is Chicago's Air & Water show. We can hear (and feel!) the planes arriving as early as Thursday, with glimpses of them flying over our deck.
The show is held on Saturday and Sunday featuring stunt pilots and military planes with an estimated 2 million people will flocking to the lakefront. People come complete with coolers, lawn chairs and even tents setting up as early as 6am just to claim a piece of lawn. (This was always the hardest weekend of Marathon Training with an extra long long-run and tons of people to run around).
We would never take our pups to anything so crowded.
I would never take myself to anything this crowded.
So we go on the "secret" day.

Every year they hold their practice session on Friday afternoons including the full-line up, announcer, and even food trucks.
We get all of the benefits of the full show, with plenty of lawn space to ourselves.

None of the pups are bothered by loud noises, and we were lucky it was a mild (but beautifully blue!) day. Dogs aren't allowed on the human beaches, so we just walked a bit past to the grass area with a perfect view of the planes and the Chicago skyline. The exact bend of the lakeshore path Jennifer Aniston runs along in the movie The Break-up.
The pups were all smiles enjoyed relaxing on the lawn and meeting lots of people.
Even Miss M was especially smiley.

Also:
Skyline exploration.
Feeling like Copenhagen.
And Deja Vu
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