Shedd Museum--Where every possible fish lives--Day 8

After a nice simple morning--no trudging off to bathrooms, packing up and cooking outdoors--we set off to see Chicago. Today's schedule...The Shedd Museum. I had purchased a GoChicago card to get discounts (the prices were great, but typical in the limit to your activities).

Chicago is huge and sprawling, not as much like New York with crowded skyscrapers. We learned that it was a trend setter for metal structures after the Chicago fire destroyed most of downtown. Its fairly easy to navigate...if you don't have a parade to avoid (and we hit two). The weekend prior, the Chicago Blackhawks had won the Stanley cup (hockey). Crowds were bearing downtown so police were out restricting left hand turns. We, of course, missed a couple of turn offs, and with our options limited it took us double the time to get to the museum.

Ironically, I met a gal from Utah at Nauvoo while getting ready in the morning who had just come from Chicago (doing the reverse of our trip). She gave me pointers on parking--street parking (timed) is less, just restrained.

TIP#8 RESEARCH PARKING OPTIONS VERSUS PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION. GATHER MAPS AND TIMES AND CARRY WITH YOU.

Okay, warning! Tons of pictures to follow (and they are only 10% of what we took). We choose Shedds over other museums because we wanted to see dolphins perform (which wasn't included in our package). Other museums are industry, children's, observatories. That said, we had tons of fun observing fish from all over the world and we saw a better dolphin show below!

AMPHIBIANS

 OUTRAGEOUS FISH

The kids dubbed this guy "Buck Teeth"
Ok, this guy isn't real, but we saw a few that were nearly his length. You had to view them from different places to get the whole. HUGE!	Check out this guys size compared to the girls!	 This is Rachel's shot. Mine of the seahorse were fuzzy



NEAT FROM ALL ANGLES

This guy had his jaw stuck open Creepy!!	Here is another...normal style.
The beluga whales were fun to watch.	Once you washed your hands you could touch starfishes.

The kids had a blast. "Film this Mom", "Check out this one". Like all good museums, they had a kids area, and for Dave, plenty to read:)

 

You probably thought that took us the whole day, but hunger and a ticking parking meter had us on our way. We stopped at Kim & Carlo's Chicago Style Hotdog Stand (written up as the best in Chicago, right outside of the Field Museum next door to the Shedd). I officially love this assortment of hotdogs--pickles, hot peppers, mustard, onions, celery salt and a prime hotdog...no ketchup!

Our eating companion... 

 

 

Next door was Soldier Field (where the Chicago Bears play) and after a long jaunt around it we stopped for statue posing and then headed home. A beautiful day and a great introduction to CHICAGO.



Yep, that's the L above us.