The Field Museum

We had to return our rental car this morning but planned on spending the day in Chicago, so we took the train into the city.  It was a commuter train with an upper level on each car (too cool!), and so we sat up above and watched the suburbs whoosh by and we went in.  The kids loved it.  It took about an hour because of the stops, but it was certain stress-free and even funner than being in the car.  

We planned on going to the Field Museum, a natural history museum filled with lots of dead stuffed animals.  We were able to catch a bus from the train station that let us off right in front of the museum, and the riding of the bus was super fun too.  Ah! Public transportation.  It's always a treat for our non-public transportation riding children.  I am pleased to report that the cost of the museum (usually very high) was free because of an annual pass I bought to Thanksgiving Point and a nation-wide agreement with similar museums.  It made the pass totally worth it.  

These two pictures were taken across the street from the museum in a little park.

We ended up spending most of the day in the museum.  It is very large with lots of exhibits, and we also saw a 3-D movie about the ice age.  The Field Museum has the most complete skeleton of a T-Rex, man-eating lions from Africa, an Egyptian exhibit with quite a few mummies, and several special exhibits.  We were shrunk for an underground exhibit where we saw giant bugs, and walked through and exhibit about bodies and how they work.  The children liked most of it and only wished they could have spent a lot of money in the museum store.

Blythe is "asleep" on an Egyptian bed.

Shrunken children only half an inch tall.

Ready to wander around under ground.

Clinging to a root.

In a bug pupa, or something.

Not a good picture, followed by what could have been a better picture

if someone had actually been looking at me.

Horribly disgusting spider automaton.

It freaked us all out.

While in the underground exhibit, we learned that earwigs are excellent mothers, very attentive for insects. 

Didn't make me like one tiny bit more.

The Field Museum has a whole section devoted to children with lots of hands-on activities.  It's called the PlayLab.  There is an art center where you can create cards with stamps and markers, there is a percussion section, an adobe house, lots of bones and shells and others bits you can touch and handle and learn about, animal costumes, a place to dig for fossils, plus masks and other fun things on the walls.

The children had a great time in this part of the museum.  Blythe colored, Brandt stomped, and together they planted, harvested, and made corn soup in and around the adobe house.  Kent and I jammed on the percussion, and we all had a short rest before launching into the final exhibit before heading for home.  

That's Blythe in there.

Kent drumming

There were other kids in the adobe house, but mine were in charge of the play.

Brandt especially was directing corn and soup production, although Blythe held her own too.

The other children allowed themselves to be swept up in the somewhat frenzied activity.

These last pictures are of the bodies exhibit, The Machine Inside: Biomachanics, about movement in bodies.  There were machines that simulated the bite of a crocodile, the leap of a kangaroo, the heart of a giraffe, and the wings of a bird.  It was almost totally hands-on and the children really liked it.  Kent and I really liked it too.  We adults could have spent a lot more time there, if we hadn't had the children.

Blythe and Brandt are propelling themselves in circles on a swivel chair using a wing.

Can you tell who's having a pout in this picture?

We got on a bus headed for the train station to catch one of two trains.  One went about 20 minutes earlier than the next and didn't make as many stops, meaning the return trip would be shorter than the going.  Thing was, it was going to be tight time wise.  As we went along in the bus, I told Kent I didn't think we should try and make it because it would mean running frantically along the sidewalk and through the train station.  But then, the closer we got to the train station, the more I didn't want to be hanging around with the kids trying to figure out what to do with ourselves, so we got off, I grabbed Blythe's hand, and we started running.  Kent grabbed Brandt and followed.  We dashed into the station and down steps, found the platform and ran towards the train.  I saw the conductor just getting on to the train signalling they could be on their way, but I gave a shout and he held up departure so we could get on.  It was a close run thing.

We made the train but discovered that it was absolutely packed.  There were here and there an empty chair, but not more than that.  We hopped on the last carriage car, so we began walking towards the front.  We went through many cars before we came to one that even had four empty places, and none of them were together.  I said to Kent that we should just sit apart, but Brandt and Blythe didn't want to.  I stood at the end of the car and knelt down to explain to Brandt that we were not going to find four seats together because we got on the train so late, but two men sitting in a foursome seat overheard us and kindly and graciously offered us their seats and went to sit in single seats elsewhere.  I was very touched by that generous act.

Alisa picked us up at the train station.  When we had first arrived, I told her that I wanted to buy a particular brand of sausage while we were there, a brand they used to carry at Costco but didn't anymore.  She had bought eight packages for me, and a couple extra we could have for dinner that night.  We had a lovely bit of pasta with sausage, salad, and bread.  

After the kids were in bed, Kent, Alisa, Ethan, and I watched a movie.  Kent and I so rarely watch films, it was fun to munch on popcorn while watching an exciting action film.  It was a good day from beginning to end.