Today was totally awesome, although man did we push it in terms of what we tried to do in a day. We did the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, and the Adler Planetarium all in one single day. They are all located really close to each other so it actually worked out really well.
We woke up at 7:15am to get ready to roll. The museums were opening at nine and our guidebook said getting there early was our best bet. We decided to go for public transit, which turned out to be totally easy, one bus from the hotel (well, ½ a block away right to the door of the museum. I gotta say, the people in this city are friendly. They will chat with you help you find your way around, terrific people. After a ½ hour bus ride we got to the museum.
I was blown away by the sheer scope of these things, it was incredible. All three of the places we visited were built at the turn of the century and reflect an architectural style unlike anything I have seen at home. Very cool. We hit the field museum first, home of the King Tut exhibit and the world’s most complete T-Rex skeleton, dubbed “Sue” by the curators. The Tut exhibit was sold out for the day, I had no idea that was even a possibility so we didn’t get in. I wasn’t sweating that too much although I must admit I was a little disappointed, but it did save us some money and I found out later that it wasn’t all that awesome anyway so I guess it worked out fine. The rest of the exhibits were pretty cool, there were some things there I didn’t expect to see.
In addition to the Tut exhibit they had an Egypt exhibit that was pretty comprehensive. There were mummies and sarcophagi, even mummified animals. It was a chance to see some great artifacts that I was thinking I wouldn’t otherwise be able to check out. The other thing I saw that sticks out to me was really cool. The Field Museum of Chicago has the Ghost and the Darkness, the actual lions that killed and ate a number of people in Africa at the turn of the century. It was one of the coolest, creepiest things I have ever seen, just knowing what these animals had done. Sue the T-Rex was very impressive, as were most of the other exhibits. I commented to Candace though, that I prefer exhibits where the objects are on display and aren’t geared towards teaching kids with bright colours and crazy ADD oriented displays. There were a few of those. In addition to Sue they also had a fill sized Brontosaurus skeleton, a Triceratops, a Dimetrodon, lots of really cool dinosaurs that made me feel like a kid again. It was awesome.
The Shedd Aquarium, as it turns out, is the most popular exhibit in Chicago, welcoming 75,000 visitors a week, although I would say that they all show up on Friday. This place was packed. The cool thing about our Citypass is that we get to jump the queue, which is awesome because the queue extended through the usual maze of ribbons and poles and then out the doors, down the stairs, and about a block back. Crazy. The Shedd is the world’s largest indoor Aquarium and has some really awesome sights to see. A huge reef with many species of fish and many many sharks including one with a nose like a chainsaw blade. Penguins. Lots of cool and crazy fish. Oh, and Spongebob! They had the Spongebob 4-D theatre which show a Spongebob cartoon in 3-D with smells (mostly pickle for the crabby patty), air jets, vibrating chairs, all that stuff. It was an awesome 5 minutes, both Candace and I were giggling like little kids. That was cool. After watching the most boring dolphin show in the world (I get it, dolphins are people too, now get those lesser lifeforms a-jumping!) we had a bite to eat and headed for the Adler Planetarium.
To sum up the Planetarium (or perhaps how I felt by this point in the journey), I fell asleep learning about the Chicago night sky, complete with snoring. I felt like an old guy as I kept waking myself up with and honking. I would have felt embarrassed if it hadn’t been so nice to fall asleep under the stars.
It was time to head back to the hotel on the bus. Unfortunately God decided we needed an extra scoop of crazy on our way home in the form of Janice, the Aquarium lady, who was determined to let us know that she was a nice person after trying to communicate with a Hispanic woman who was trying to find her way. I think Janice actually equated speaking loudly and slowly with speaking Spanish and when the woman walked away because she was freaked out the lady started incessantly telling us how helpful she was. Janice is easily the most annoying person I have met in this city and I am so glad she decided to befriend Candace because at least then I got to laugh as Candace politely put up with her craziness. Yes, you are a nice person, yes you are friendly, etc… I found a place to stare at on the wall so as not laugh out loud while my wife squirmed. She even got off at the same stop we did, but fortunately she was called away to help some people who were staring intently at a map. I guess she was like a real-life Spider-man, y;know if Spider-man were a middle aged crazy woman who worked at an aquarium.
Once we got back to hotel and cleaned up, we went out to Johnny Rockets for supper, where I had my second amazing dog of the week, a chili cheese dog this time, along with a Butterfinger milkshake. Mmmm….. gooooood. Thankfully tomorrow won’t be nearly as full. The Museum of Science and Industry awaits!
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