Chicago - so much to do

We had grand plans today of visiting the Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, the Museum of Contemporary Art & the Field Museum. Well, we got to half. We spent nearly 4 hours at the Aquarium and were pretty well buggered by the time we got out of there. It was very good though. Easily the biggest Bulega Whales I have seen in an aquarium. They had a special exhibit of Jelly Fish, which I must admit, I thought would be really boring but there were jelly fish that I didn't know existed and they were actually interesting. Whilst there we also got to see a 4D Ice Age movie, which was fantastic - especially when a dinosaur sneezed and we got wet.

I'm not sure but I reckon these Ringed Sawback Turtles were actually posing

A Northeast Pacific Sea Nettle

We covered off every part of the aquarium before moving across to the Planetarium. Here, we watched a young science student showing us the effects of air pressure/vacuum has on objects. He was able to show us the importance of space suits and why they must be worn in space, using items such as shaving cream, water and a marshmallow. We got to see a very interesting 3D movie on how the Sun is monitored 3 dimensionally these days. It is done with NASA's twin sun-watching STEREO spacecraft. One is positioned in orbit in front of Earth, the other positioned in orbit behind the Earth quite incredible how it is done. 

A view of the magnificent Chicago from the Planetarium

Gena thought it would be a great idea to catch the double decker bus back to the city centre so we could soak in a little more Chicago knowledge. Unfortunately, after waiting 15 minutes, Riley & Bailey needed to go to the loo - of course that is when the bus showed up. They said not to worry though, there will another one along in 15 minutes - after 40 minutes, we gave up and caught the transit back into town. Gena, Bluey & Bailey did take the opportunity to have a little spell under a tree near the bus stop.

Gena with Chicago in the background

Some people have the life

Okay, we are off again tomorrow. We will be heading to Detroit, and Bluey will be catching up with an old mate from home in Jeff DeVries, who has been working in the USA for a number of years. We have been looking forward to that for a while.

~Riley