American Girl Place

An exhausting day, as most days with a 9 year old girl would probably be. Let's get right to the pictures!!



Here she is, arriving at my door at 9:30 or so.













Look at that cute outfit! First stop: Starbucks. Coffee for me and a kids hot chocolate for her. The best hot chocolate "ever" I'm told. Apparently it tasted just like a brownie she had the other day.









No driving for us. No cabs either. We're busing it down to Water Tower Place.













From inside the store. This is the historical doll section.









Just a few of the clothes you can buy for about $30 a pop.













The Irish side of the store apparently. Crikey, where be me pot o'gold??












You can get more elaborate though. Clothes: $30. Horse: $75. Sleigh: $150. Yowza.











The flower girl dress and such. My niece really liked this to start, but opted for a much more practical outfit for her doll.











Here's how you pick your doll. They're all numbered and you can find the one you want by finding the section with your doll's number. There's two or three of these doll viewing stations.










Sommer has picked her doll!! We went to the "looks like me" section and she went with the blond hair, blue eyes doll.....I'd bet one of the most popular. Still, they had three varieties to choose from. Mostly just the hair style.









Here's the hair salon. For $25 you can bring your doll here and have her hair washed, dried and styled to your liking. Since Sommer's doll was new, we didn't do this.










You can get a crafts package for you and your doll too. Can't remember how much, but not cheap.











Did your doll lose an arm? Don't go to the ER, take her to the doll hospital. Didn't see anyone using the hospital while I was there, but I can imagine some interesting stories.











Here's the restaurant in the store. They have two seatings for lunch and then afternoon tea and dinner. Nice job by AGP. Good business sense. All meals are fixed price, but you get to choose what you want to have.








You can't eat at the restaurant if you don't have a doll with you at the table. Fortunately Sommer had one!!












She even gets her own cup! Can't take it with us though....cheap bastards.













Hey! Joe got in a picture!!












Here's the kiosk downstairs near the photography section. If you get your picture taken, for only $5 more they will display your picture on this huge screen and give you a card. Anytime for one year you can scan your card and have your picture displayed again!!! The kiosk tells you how long it will be until your picture is displayed (usually 3-5 minutes).















Close up of the kiosk screen.











And Sommer's picture on the big screen! This screen is something like 20x20. It's huge.











After we left the store, we walked down Michigan Ave where we ran across this moose. Unlike Sarah Palin, we don't know how to field dress him.










We also visited my buddy (and client) who is up on the 31st floor of the Tribune Towers. Sommer enjoyed the viewed from up there, but was a little frightened at first. Then we stopped on 22 and went out on the terrace.










After the bus ride home, she finally wore out at the playground. "The most comfortable swing ever!" It was a good day.