It didn't take as long to get downtown as I thought it might, but traffic gets heavy pretty quick when you're heading that way! It was surprisingly easy to get there, too. You just drive down I-55, until it tees into Lake Shore Drive... You go left and drive down 2 or 3 blocks, and the aquarium, museum, planetarium, and Soldier Field are all over on the right. Parking costs $16 for under 4 hours, $19 for longer! OUCH! Carpooling is recommended!
On the way from the parking garage to the aquarium, we passed the Field Museum of Natural History, and the very first legit hot dog stand I've ever seen! :) I didn't get one. In fact, I haven't had a Chicago dog in the 4+ months I've been here. Here, they're all about mustard, which I d-e-s-p-i-s-e. A lot. Blegh! In fact, the only topping on a standard Chicago-style hot dog I LIKE is tomato. So yeah, I'm sticking to the pizza.
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| Left: Field Museum — Right: Shedd Aquarium |
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| Look! A hot dog cart! Like in While You Were Sleeping! |
The line was QUITE long, so I had time to snap some pictures. The Sears Tower has been the tallest building in the United States, at 1451 feet, since it was built in 1973, surpassing the World Trade Center towers. It was the tallest building in the world until 1998. And YES. That includes those two white antennas. (And yes, I think that's cheating. Sorry, Chicago!)
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| Bottom Left: Former Sears Tower (now "Willis" Tower...dumb!) Bottom Right: That's a great lake—Lake Michigan! |
Ava was having a lot of fun being admired... :) The kids we were with thought she was really cute... and I tend to agree with them... :)
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| Left: Ava was very popular with the kids we were with. Top Right: Ava and Mom in front of a fish fountain. Bottom Right: The only picture mom took of Ava "with" a fish... Oops! |
We finally got in, and I took quite a few (mostly bad) pictures before my battery died. I left the spare in the car for some stupid reason. Grrr! I didn't even take a picture of Ava INSIDE the aquarium! The best I got was a picture of her in the reflection of one of the exhibits (above, bottom right).
There were a LOT of fish and other critters. Some were huge, some tiny, some uglier than sin, some beautiful, some harmless, some deadly. Some weren't even aquatic creatures. There were monkeys! !!! I was like, "Ummmmmmm.... guys?" No, but seriously, there were parts of the aquarium that showed different ecosystems, and one showed everything from the treetops to the lake bottom. Make sense? Yeah... I thought they were stretching... Oooh... I LOVED the blue frogs! SOOOO pretty, but seriously poisonous!
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| Top Left: Some kind of very large lobster; Top Right: Big Turtles Bottom Left: A monkey............ at the aquarium.............. Bottom Middle: Very pretty and very poisonous frog. Do not touch. Bottom Right: "Morning Sunstar"... My dog has that toy in green. :P |
There were pretty things, like this.... ummmm... errrrr.... *googles* Okay, help me out! I'm spacing on what this stuff is called! Apparently googling "pretty underwater stuff" isn't specific enough! :P
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| Pretty... stuff....! |
And there were CREEPY things....
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| Can you say ANACONDA? Scary! |
Overall, we had a fun day! Ava didn't really "get it," but she likes riding in her stroller, so that worked! I wish I'd had that extra camera battery though! I didn't get any picture of the beluga whales, the dolphins, or the sea lions! And I would have LOVED to take a video of the jelly fish! They were beautiful and totally transfixing... We'll have to go back soon for more pictures... The jellies exhibit goes through May 28, 2012!
For more info on the museum: http://www.sheddaquarium.org/
Free day schedule: http://www.sheddaquarium.org/discounts.html
EDIT: Found this picture of Ava on my cell phone! See? I DID take a picture of Ava at the museum! (Please excuse the TERRIBLE quality. I hadn't gotten my new phone yet...)
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| This is the first time Ava ever fell asleep in her stroller! CUTE! |
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