Galco's Old World Grocery & Soda Pop Stop

I once overheard a mom at dance pickup say "the refined sugar situation is an epidemic". If you are that mom, you can skip this post. Otherwise, read on to discover another antidote to bored kids. As you know, I'm all about field trips that are fun for me too (#selfish), and don't cost a fortune (#cheap). For this adventure, we hit Galco's Old World Grocery & Soda Pop Stop in Highland Park to peruse its 700 flavors of soda. (And just erase that momguilt about the sugar situation, because this store is a small business that supports other small businesses, and you can always get real food at the store's deli.)

This family-owned place opened in 1897 as an Italian grocery store, and went full soda in 1995 when the owner's son John F. Nese took over.

There is an amazing selection of classic, small-batch, exotic and hard-to-find sodas. There is also a former meat cooler housing tons of nostalgic candy. This wins my prize for best candy display ever. I also find it deliciously inappropriate to stock up on candy cigarettes for future kid gifts... or you could go the Pop Rocks with Cola duo. This is a way to get super popular with the other moms.

I gave my daughter Eleanor and her BFF Milla an assignment to find the perfect flavor of soda for each member of their family. This kept them busy for a long time. After that, they hit the Creation Station to concoct and name their own bottle of soda. I sampled the result of this, and I don't think they will be going into the pop business anytime soon... but dang, we had some F-U-N.