The Trip
Ok, so it's been more than two weeks since I got back and I've probably forgotten most of the really great stories anyway. Nevermind that! I promised a recounting of my trip and here it is. I'm including some pictures, but nowhere near as many as I took. Most of the ones worth looking at are in the Gallery and if you want to see the rest it can be arranged.
It all started on July 5 when I left my house at around 7:30am, filled up with gasoline, and headed out. I made great time through Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. It was when I got on I-57 in Illinois that everything ground to a halt. First, that highway is undergoing some major construction and traffic came to a complete stop in many places. I won't bore you excessively with those details. Then I noticed I was about out of gas. I passed a couple of service stations, but I didn't like the brand on either of them (Citgo and BP) so I decided to wait for the next one. The next one turned out to be over 30 miles away. As I'm watching my gas gauge sink and wondering what it's going to be like to walk (and how far, and in which direction) I notice in the distance dark, ominous clouds and flashes of lightning. I begin wondering what it will be like to walk in the rain. Luckily I found a station (BP...at least it wasn't Citgo) and filled up with a sigh of relief (and gas) and got back on the road just before the clouds opened. I mean this was a real frog strangler. Around 5pm (EDT) I made it to the St. Louis Zoo.
The St. Louis Zoo was probably the best zoo I visited on the whole trip. Laid out well, exhibits in a logical order, and interesting to look at. I only wish I'd had more time because I had to rush through a lot of stuff.
The hippopotamus exhibit was really awesome. The other two zoos I visited on the trip also had hippos, but this was far and away the best presentation. They even had African cichlids in there with them to give that authentic natural flavor. They also had penguins that were close enough to touch (although they advised against such), a nice roomy place for their sea lions, a magnificent tiger prowling the edges of its enclosure, a butterfly exhibit, cheetah cubs (not so cublike anymore...getting big), and a nice little exhibition about Darwin.
After I finished at the zoo I headed over to a friend's house who lives in Columbia who had very kindly agreed to put me up for the night. Next morning I was up bright and early to continue on to Kansas City. I had intended to hit the Kansas City Zoo on Friday, but the convention schedule dictated that we had to set up the equipment that day, so no zoo trip. I did manage to catch the Kansas City Royals play against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (home team lost...boo).
Saturday morning a small contingent decided to brave the heat and make the zoo trip that day. The Kansas City Zoo would have been a great zoo...in the fall when you have all day to visit. In the heat and under a schedule deadline it was less than pleasant. It was amazingly huge, spread out, and in between exhibits there wasn't much. Weeds and other local plantlife, and not even arranged as a sort of ad hoc arboretum...just random vegetation. When it was providing shade it was nice, but there was precious little of that. The KCZ is basically divided up into two sections: Australia (with kids section) and Africa. The distance between the two is sufficient that they offered a tram service for $0.75, which we didn't find out about until we were ready to come back (better late than never).
There's an orangutan under that sheet.
One of the more interesting things about this zoo is that the kangaroos are basically given the run of the place. They tend to stick to a little grassy area, and there are signs warning people to stay on the path, but when you look up and see a kangaroo in the path ahead of you it gets your attention.
Also, llamas. These were being led around. This pic was for you, emmilicious.
And koalas. Sleepy koalas. The volunteer who was standing there talking to folks about them said that the eukalyptus that they eat is actually poisonous to them, so they spend a LOT of time sleeping. I declined to ask about their quality (koalaty) of life.
The African area was even more spread out than the Australian area, with lots of bridgework to lead you along the path from one area to the next. Again, in the fall or in a shady spot it wasn't so bad, but then again I have a job that keeps me on my feet all day, so my fellow zoogoers may have had a different opinion. Very natural settings for the most part, though. I felt sorry for the rhino, but I guess it gets hot in Africa, too, so they're probably used to it. They also had cheetahs, warthogs, giraffes, and other assorted wildlife. We almost missed the elephants, but the tram we took back to the front gate passed by them, so that was ok. Then we went back to the hotel to shower and change clothes for the show.
ARTC did two shows at the Heinlein Centennial convention, All You Zombies... and The Menace From Earth. Both were...moderately well attended. I was annoyed when the closing ceremonies had a bigger crowd than we did, but we just about sold out of all our Heinlein stock we'd brought with us, so we made money and that counts for something. Saturday night I successfully dodged having to help with the Convention Banquet and instead went to a delicious steak dinner at the Hereford House. Somehow I managed not to know that KC was famous for its steaks, but it was very good. You might even say "well done". Har har har!
Sunday morning I got up and went to the National World War I Memorial. Wow. I've never been much of a bigtime history buff, but this was very well presented. On the way there I stopped by Union Station, the local Amtrak stop, which had some amazing architecture. They also had a science museum there, but I didn't get to go because they opened late on Sunday and there was no time.
The WWI Memorial consists of a gigantic building with a huge spire on top. Inside the building are various artifacts from the war, recreations of items they couldn't get, timelines of the war, and dioramas depicting life in the trenches.
It got off to a very classy start by having a glass bridge over a small field of flowers. They had it all here. Uniforms for the various armies involved, examples of weaponry, interactive exhibits where you could plan strategy and even come up with your own propaganda posters (!) and lots of other stuff. I was amazed at the amount of material and detail that was available (and dismayed that I didn't have more time to enjoy it). Check this link out for a copy of a letter a state senator wrote to a constituent about the war. It was in a display with an American flag and it really had an impact on me. They also had two other buildings separate from the main museum, the Memory and Exhibit halls. Very very cool stuff, including some artwork done by the soldiers. And then there was the tower.
Awesome views of Kansas City. This one shows the big lawn on the back end of the museum (which I walked up thinking it was the front) and also Union Station across the street. You'll also notice the fountain. Kansas City is evidently famous for its fountains. When I was done with the museum I walked back down the right side path, and as I got closer to the fountain it would send up large jets of water. The sound created by those larger and higher jets bounced off Union Station, up the hill over my head, and then bounced back off the museum building behind me. The result was that I would hear the sound coming from behind me a few seconds after the sound was generated at the bottom of the hill, but I never heard the original sound. Very cool effect. Then it was time for the second ARTC show.
After the ARTC show I stayed to help break down the equipment, loaded a few things they needed help getting back to Atlanta into my car, and then headed for Chicago with Rachel. Rachel is a friend of mine in ARTC whose family was on vacation in Texas. She flew in to KC to help with the show but needed a ride back and I was the only one with room in his car. Luckily she was able to go on the Chicago trip with me, and even more luckily she had relatives there who let us stay with them. One of the greatest parts of this whole trip was being gone for 6 nights and never paying for a hotel room. The drive to Chicago took about 8 hours or thereabouts. The next morning we got up and headed for the Shedd Aquarium.
My boss had arranged a behind-the-scenes tour for us, which they don't normally do but since he used to work there he knew some people. The public areas of the building are quite nice and the Oceanarium looks newer. The older areas are starting to show their age a little, but since the thing opened in the 1920s you kinda have to cut them some slack. The behind-the-scenes areas, however, really showed their age. Algae was everywhere and some of the holding pools were made of concrete that was about 4 inches thick.
This catfish came swimming up to us while we were looking into its exhibit and waited to see if we were going to feed it (which we didn't). You can't tell from this picture very well, but it was vertical in the exhibit staring up at us.
An arapaima that was about 6 or 8 inches long or thereabouts. This will someday grow to be about 10 feet long.
Something else they had, which I wish the Georgia Aquarium would do (and maybe we will when we expand...maybe) was reptiles. They had a substantial reptile exhibit (which was temporary) including a Komodo Dragon. Also turtles and snakes were well-represented. They also had Pacific White-Sided Dolphins, which were very cool, and Beluga Whales.
Unless I'm mistaken, this Beluga Whale is pregnant. They already have a calf there, too. I just hope we can have this kind of success with our breeding program.
One of the more surreal moments at the aquarium was this guy with a fish.
After the aquarium we debated going to the Brookfield Zoo, but we decided that since we'd taken public transit there it would take us forever to get there (or cost us an arm and a leg, as we discovered when we tried to take a taxi) so instead we went to the Adler Planetarium which is in the same museum campus with the aquarium and the Field Museum.
The planetarium wasn't actually on my list of things I felt excited about doing, but Rachel wanted to see it and splitting up wasn't really an option. In the end I'd say I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't have been heartbroken if I'd skipped it. Lots of astrolabes and orrerys and suchlike, a pretty good exhibit about the moon landing and whether (and how) we'll go again. We also saw a short movie about black holes which would have been pretty interesting if we'd gotten more sleep the night before. As it was we both nearly nodded off in the dark theatre. While we were there we noticed that it was raining cats and dogs outside. We stuck around there until pretty close to closing time and then ventured out into the rain. Our original plan had been to hit the Sears tower, but we decided we didn't really feel like going up that high to look at rainclouds. We walked towards the train trying to figure out our next move and then I had the brilliant idea of heading back to the apartment, changing clothes, and then going back out to eat. I'd also thought I could take out the people who we were staying with to thank them, but they had other plans already so no dice there. Before we went one of dslartoo's friends recommended this place called Ed Debevic's, and so we went there.
It was great. The waitstaff has this wonderful attitude, and the server we had knew exactly when to use it and when to back off and take care of the customer. That's a fine line that I'm not sure I could walk myself. Within minutes of being seated the DJ they were using announced that nobody would be getting any drinks or food for the next few minutes because all the servers had to get up on the counters and dance. It was that kind of place. First thing the server said to me, she looked at my dragons T-shirt, looked at Rachel, and said "oh, here's a keeper" then back to me and "do you have your 20-sided dice with you?" I came up with my retort about 20 minutes later ("No, she's holding them in her purse for me") but it was too late. I also didn't feel the need to explain that Rachel and I weren't on a date. Seemed like too much trouble. Really great atmosphere and passable food. I got a bacon cheeseburger (burger was good, fries sucked). It came with pickles, which I don't like, so I asked for a new bun and fries. She went to get them, dropped the basket off at the table and said, walking away, "that do it for you?" I said "yeah, except it still has pickles on it". She turned and said "Does it really?" and went to get me another bun and fries. Later I ordered a chocolate shake (which was good, but too much food after the hamburger) and she said "with pickles, right?"
Afterwards we decided to try the Sears Tower after all, since the rain had let up a bit. So we went looking for the Brown Line train. I'd consulted some maps before we left so I knew about where it was and I felt we could find it. On the way we stopped at an ATM so I could get some cash. Several blocks later we consulted a map inside a bus kiosk and I called my dad to ask him to look up on the computer where the train stop was. He did and we eventually found it. It turned out to be an elevated train, not a subway, and the station was directly over the ATM we'd stopped at. Sigh. Anyway, we got on the train and then tried to figure out which stop to get off at. We picked one, asked directions, got back on the train, got off at the correct stop, and entered the Sears Tower at 9:37pm. Sadly they sold the last ticket to the skydeck at 9:25pm so we didn't get to go. I literally sank to my knees and said "noooooo...." which got me a very strange look from the security guard there. Then we made our way back to the apartment and sleep.
Next morning, up bright and early for the Field Museum. Rachel was the one who told me about this place when I said I wanted to go to Chicago (my primary goal was the Shedd) but once I read about it I got really excited about the things they have there. I think, however, that Rachel didn't fully understand how big the building was until we got there.
Sue, the most complete T-rex skeleton on exhibit. Really awesome. They also had special exhibitions on Darwin and some additional dinosaur stuff besides their usual fossil collection, but they wouldn't let us take pictures of that stuff. The main part of the museum had a lot of dioramas of various scenes, including the Lions of Tsavo. If you've ever seen The Ghost and the Darkness, these are the two lions that attacked and ate over a hundred workers in Africa that the movie was based on. A guy eventually shot them and had them turned into rugs. The museum eventually acquired the rugs and had a really talented taxidermist restore them to look more like the original lions. They also had various skeletons of animals (extinct and current), Japanese laquer examples, island culture exhibits, Egyptian and mummy stuff, the hall of gems, the hall of plants, jade, early Americas, Maori, and on and on and on. We needed to hit the Brookfield Zoo today or we'd miss it entirely so we really rushed through the last several exhibits, including the hall of plants which we very nearly sprinted through. I took so many awesome pictures here you're just going to have to look at the Gallery because I can't decide which ones to post here.
Then we did make it to the Brookfield Zoo. I'd taken my car so we'd be able to get there in good time. Unfortunately rush hour conspired against us and in the end it might have been faster to take the train after all. The BFZ was similar to the KCZ in that it was kinda spread out, but not quite as bad. Given that we only had 2 hours to see it by the time we got there, we cut right to the chase.
This is what we mainly went to see. The polar bear cub. Very awesome.
They also had an amazing tiger prowling around, looking as though he were contemplating trying to jump the pit to get to those juicy morsels on the other side. They also had a bat exhibit, which I didn't take pictures of because of the low light and not wanting to frighten the bats with the flash. But the exhibit let you get in the same room with the bats, which was very cool.
Speaking of very cool, these are aardvarks. Poor guys...I actually did use the flash on them and the first picture had such a glare that I had to take another one, and by then they were awake. Sorry! They also had bison, wolves, the usual giraffes, camels, etc. They had a stingray touch pool, but you had to pay extra for it and since I work at the aquarium I decided I knew what cownose rays felt like. Oh, and then this happened.
That's the actual color of the sky. It rained pretty hard for a brief time, and we sheltered in the reptile/bird house. When it slacked off a little we ventured out to see the wolves, who were asleep, and then saw one or two other things before we decided to pack it in. They were about to close anyway.
Then we went to see Blue Man Group. We nearly didn't, though, because I thought I knew where the theatre was and it turned out I knew where a different theatre was, so we circled the block there for a bit looking for it, and eventually I went in to ask the guys in that theatre where it was, and luckily they were able to tell me. Now with all this Field Museum, traffic getting to Brookfield Zoo, and now heading to the theatre, we hadn't eaten all day. We needed food. So when we found the theatre, we parked (got a really primo parking space, I might add) and then set out to find food with what time we had left, which wasn't as much as I'd expected since we had to drive much further north to get to the correct theatre than I'd anticipated. After walking about 5 blocks and not finding anything we eventually ate at Eatzi's, which is kinda like a Whole Foods...that kind of grocery store. Then we walked back and made it just in time.
Blue Man Group was amazing. Very funny, very clever, and I really dug the music. One of the final bits in the performance had a sea of crepe paper being unrolled by the audience in amongst strobe lights that were strobing regular light and UV light as well. I really liked the audience interaction they did, and the guy in the row in front of us got picked to go up on stage (as a "plant"...they approached him before the show started and took him away to give him his instructions). I have to admit, though, that the fact that the tickets were free (thanks again to Rachel's relatives, who got the tickets through work) added to my enjoyment. Afterwards Rachel wanted coffee, so we went back to this Caribou Coffee we'd passed on the way there and then headed back to the apartment.
Next morning we arose, got our stuff together, and drove back home. We tried to hit an IHOP before we left Chicago (since we'd eaten so poorly the day before I was bound and determined to eat regular meals on the drive back...that almost worked) but we couldn't find the street it was on so we gave up and just headed out. We found one in Indiana later. Made pretty good time until we got to Chattanooga when we hit a traffic jam caused by an accident. We were detoured off the highway twice (the first time for no apparant reason and with no instructions from the detourers about where the detour was supposed to go), but eventually got back on the right road and headed south. I dropped Rachel off, headed home myself, and went to bed. We'd missed ARTC rehearsal, which I had intended to attend, but there was no way after the Chattanooga delay.
Now you'll notice from time to time I mentioned that we got lost. I left a bunch of those stories out of this entry simply because to include them all would have been to make the entry about twice as long. We were seemingly constantly lost, making first one wrong turn and then another, whether in the car or on foot. Even in the zoo we made wrong turns. It became quite comical after a while.
Whew! So that was the trip in a nutshell. Lots of sights seen, lots of great stories, and a good time had all around. And now that I've gotten this entry written I need to find time to caption the rest of the pictures on the Gallery. Later.
It all started on July 5 when I left my house at around 7:30am, filled up with gasoline, and headed out. I made great time through Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. It was when I got on I-57 in Illinois that everything ground to a halt. First, that highway is undergoing some major construction and traffic came to a complete stop in many places. I won't bore you excessively with those details. Then I noticed I was about out of gas. I passed a couple of service stations, but I didn't like the brand on either of them (Citgo and BP) so I decided to wait for the next one. The next one turned out to be over 30 miles away. As I'm watching my gas gauge sink and wondering what it's going to be like to walk (and how far, and in which direction) I notice in the distance dark, ominous clouds and flashes of lightning. I begin wondering what it will be like to walk in the rain. Luckily I found a station (BP...at least it wasn't Citgo) and filled up with a sigh of relief (and gas) and got back on the road just before the clouds opened. I mean this was a real frog strangler. Around 5pm (EDT) I made it to the St. Louis Zoo.
The St. Louis Zoo was probably the best zoo I visited on the whole trip. Laid out well, exhibits in a logical order, and interesting to look at. I only wish I'd had more time because I had to rush through a lot of stuff.
The hippopotamus exhibit was really awesome. The other two zoos I visited on the trip also had hippos, but this was far and away the best presentation. They even had African cichlids in there with them to give that authentic natural flavor. They also had penguins that were close enough to touch (although they advised against such), a nice roomy place for their sea lions, a magnificent tiger prowling the edges of its enclosure, a butterfly exhibit, cheetah cubs (not so cublike anymore...getting big), and a nice little exhibition about Darwin.
After I finished at the zoo I headed over to a friend's house who lives in Columbia who had very kindly agreed to put me up for the night. Next morning I was up bright and early to continue on to Kansas City. I had intended to hit the Kansas City Zoo on Friday, but the convention schedule dictated that we had to set up the equipment that day, so no zoo trip. I did manage to catch the Kansas City Royals play against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (home team lost...boo).
Saturday morning a small contingent decided to brave the heat and make the zoo trip that day. The Kansas City Zoo would have been a great zoo...in the fall when you have all day to visit. In the heat and under a schedule deadline it was less than pleasant. It was amazingly huge, spread out, and in between exhibits there wasn't much. Weeds and other local plantlife, and not even arranged as a sort of ad hoc arboretum...just random vegetation. When it was providing shade it was nice, but there was precious little of that. The KCZ is basically divided up into two sections: Australia (with kids section) and Africa. The distance between the two is sufficient that they offered a tram service for $0.75, which we didn't find out about until we were ready to come back (better late than never).
There's an orangutan under that sheet.
One of the more interesting things about this zoo is that the kangaroos are basically given the run of the place. They tend to stick to a little grassy area, and there are signs warning people to stay on the path, but when you look up and see a kangaroo in the path ahead of you it gets your attention.
Also, llamas. These were being led around. This pic was for you, emmilicious.
And koalas. Sleepy koalas. The volunteer who was standing there talking to folks about them said that the eukalyptus that they eat is actually poisonous to them, so they spend a LOT of time sleeping. I declined to ask about their quality (koalaty) of life.
The African area was even more spread out than the Australian area, with lots of bridgework to lead you along the path from one area to the next. Again, in the fall or in a shady spot it wasn't so bad, but then again I have a job that keeps me on my feet all day, so my fellow zoogoers may have had a different opinion. Very natural settings for the most part, though. I felt sorry for the rhino, but I guess it gets hot in Africa, too, so they're probably used to it. They also had cheetahs, warthogs, giraffes, and other assorted wildlife. We almost missed the elephants, but the tram we took back to the front gate passed by them, so that was ok. Then we went back to the hotel to shower and change clothes for the show.
ARTC did two shows at the Heinlein Centennial convention, All You Zombies... and The Menace From Earth. Both were...moderately well attended. I was annoyed when the closing ceremonies had a bigger crowd than we did, but we just about sold out of all our Heinlein stock we'd brought with us, so we made money and that counts for something. Saturday night I successfully dodged having to help with the Convention Banquet and instead went to a delicious steak dinner at the Hereford House. Somehow I managed not to know that KC was famous for its steaks, but it was very good. You might even say "well done". Har har har!
Sunday morning I got up and went to the National World War I Memorial. Wow. I've never been much of a bigtime history buff, but this was very well presented. On the way there I stopped by Union Station, the local Amtrak stop, which had some amazing architecture. They also had a science museum there, but I didn't get to go because they opened late on Sunday and there was no time.
The WWI Memorial consists of a gigantic building with a huge spire on top. Inside the building are various artifacts from the war, recreations of items they couldn't get, timelines of the war, and dioramas depicting life in the trenches.
It got off to a very classy start by having a glass bridge over a small field of flowers. They had it all here. Uniforms for the various armies involved, examples of weaponry, interactive exhibits where you could plan strategy and even come up with your own propaganda posters (!) and lots of other stuff. I was amazed at the amount of material and detail that was available (and dismayed that I didn't have more time to enjoy it). Check this link out for a copy of a letter a state senator wrote to a constituent about the war. It was in a display with an American flag and it really had an impact on me. They also had two other buildings separate from the main museum, the Memory and Exhibit halls. Very very cool stuff, including some artwork done by the soldiers. And then there was the tower.
Awesome views of Kansas City. This one shows the big lawn on the back end of the museum (which I walked up thinking it was the front) and also Union Station across the street. You'll also notice the fountain. Kansas City is evidently famous for its fountains. When I was done with the museum I walked back down the right side path, and as I got closer to the fountain it would send up large jets of water. The sound created by those larger and higher jets bounced off Union Station, up the hill over my head, and then bounced back off the museum building behind me. The result was that I would hear the sound coming from behind me a few seconds after the sound was generated at the bottom of the hill, but I never heard the original sound. Very cool effect. Then it was time for the second ARTC show.
After the ARTC show I stayed to help break down the equipment, loaded a few things they needed help getting back to Atlanta into my car, and then headed for Chicago with Rachel. Rachel is a friend of mine in ARTC whose family was on vacation in Texas. She flew in to KC to help with the show but needed a ride back and I was the only one with room in his car. Luckily she was able to go on the Chicago trip with me, and even more luckily she had relatives there who let us stay with them. One of the greatest parts of this whole trip was being gone for 6 nights and never paying for a hotel room. The drive to Chicago took about 8 hours or thereabouts. The next morning we got up and headed for the Shedd Aquarium.
My boss had arranged a behind-the-scenes tour for us, which they don't normally do but since he used to work there he knew some people. The public areas of the building are quite nice and the Oceanarium looks newer. The older areas are starting to show their age a little, but since the thing opened in the 1920s you kinda have to cut them some slack. The behind-the-scenes areas, however, really showed their age. Algae was everywhere and some of the holding pools were made of concrete that was about 4 inches thick.
This catfish came swimming up to us while we were looking into its exhibit and waited to see if we were going to feed it (which we didn't). You can't tell from this picture very well, but it was vertical in the exhibit staring up at us.
An arapaima that was about 6 or 8 inches long or thereabouts. This will someday grow to be about 10 feet long.
Something else they had, which I wish the Georgia Aquarium would do (and maybe we will when we expand...maybe) was reptiles. They had a substantial reptile exhibit (which was temporary) including a Komodo Dragon. Also turtles and snakes were well-represented. They also had Pacific White-Sided Dolphins, which were very cool, and Beluga Whales.
Unless I'm mistaken, this Beluga Whale is pregnant. They already have a calf there, too. I just hope we can have this kind of success with our breeding program.
One of the more surreal moments at the aquarium was this guy with a fish.
After the aquarium we debated going to the Brookfield Zoo, but we decided that since we'd taken public transit there it would take us forever to get there (or cost us an arm and a leg, as we discovered when we tried to take a taxi) so instead we went to the Adler Planetarium which is in the same museum campus with the aquarium and the Field Museum.
The planetarium wasn't actually on my list of things I felt excited about doing, but Rachel wanted to see it and splitting up wasn't really an option. In the end I'd say I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't have been heartbroken if I'd skipped it. Lots of astrolabes and orrerys and suchlike, a pretty good exhibit about the moon landing and whether (and how) we'll go again. We also saw a short movie about black holes which would have been pretty interesting if we'd gotten more sleep the night before. As it was we both nearly nodded off in the dark theatre. While we were there we noticed that it was raining cats and dogs outside. We stuck around there until pretty close to closing time and then ventured out into the rain. Our original plan had been to hit the Sears tower, but we decided we didn't really feel like going up that high to look at rainclouds. We walked towards the train trying to figure out our next move and then I had the brilliant idea of heading back to the apartment, changing clothes, and then going back out to eat. I'd also thought I could take out the people who we were staying with to thank them, but they had other plans already so no dice there. Before we went one of dslartoo's friends recommended this place called Ed Debevic's, and so we went there.
It was great. The waitstaff has this wonderful attitude, and the server we had knew exactly when to use it and when to back off and take care of the customer. That's a fine line that I'm not sure I could walk myself. Within minutes of being seated the DJ they were using announced that nobody would be getting any drinks or food for the next few minutes because all the servers had to get up on the counters and dance. It was that kind of place. First thing the server said to me, she looked at my dragons T-shirt, looked at Rachel, and said "oh, here's a keeper" then back to me and "do you have your 20-sided dice with you?" I came up with my retort about 20 minutes later ("No, she's holding them in her purse for me") but it was too late. I also didn't feel the need to explain that Rachel and I weren't on a date. Seemed like too much trouble. Really great atmosphere and passable food. I got a bacon cheeseburger (burger was good, fries sucked). It came with pickles, which I don't like, so I asked for a new bun and fries. She went to get them, dropped the basket off at the table and said, walking away, "that do it for you?" I said "yeah, except it still has pickles on it". She turned and said "Does it really?" and went to get me another bun and fries. Later I ordered a chocolate shake (which was good, but too much food after the hamburger) and she said "with pickles, right?"
Afterwards we decided to try the Sears Tower after all, since the rain had let up a bit. So we went looking for the Brown Line train. I'd consulted some maps before we left so I knew about where it was and I felt we could find it. On the way we stopped at an ATM so I could get some cash. Several blocks later we consulted a map inside a bus kiosk and I called my dad to ask him to look up on the computer where the train stop was. He did and we eventually found it. It turned out to be an elevated train, not a subway, and the station was directly over the ATM we'd stopped at. Sigh. Anyway, we got on the train and then tried to figure out which stop to get off at. We picked one, asked directions, got back on the train, got off at the correct stop, and entered the Sears Tower at 9:37pm. Sadly they sold the last ticket to the skydeck at 9:25pm so we didn't get to go. I literally sank to my knees and said "noooooo...." which got me a very strange look from the security guard there. Then we made our way back to the apartment and sleep.
Next morning, up bright and early for the Field Museum. Rachel was the one who told me about this place when I said I wanted to go to Chicago (my primary goal was the Shedd) but once I read about it I got really excited about the things they have there. I think, however, that Rachel didn't fully understand how big the building was until we got there.
Sue, the most complete T-rex skeleton on exhibit. Really awesome. They also had special exhibitions on Darwin and some additional dinosaur stuff besides their usual fossil collection, but they wouldn't let us take pictures of that stuff. The main part of the museum had a lot of dioramas of various scenes, including the Lions of Tsavo. If you've ever seen The Ghost and the Darkness, these are the two lions that attacked and ate over a hundred workers in Africa that the movie was based on. A guy eventually shot them and had them turned into rugs. The museum eventually acquired the rugs and had a really talented taxidermist restore them to look more like the original lions. They also had various skeletons of animals (extinct and current), Japanese laquer examples, island culture exhibits, Egyptian and mummy stuff, the hall of gems, the hall of plants, jade, early Americas, Maori, and on and on and on. We needed to hit the Brookfield Zoo today or we'd miss it entirely so we really rushed through the last several exhibits, including the hall of plants which we very nearly sprinted through. I took so many awesome pictures here you're just going to have to look at the Gallery because I can't decide which ones to post here.
Then we did make it to the Brookfield Zoo. I'd taken my car so we'd be able to get there in good time. Unfortunately rush hour conspired against us and in the end it might have been faster to take the train after all. The BFZ was similar to the KCZ in that it was kinda spread out, but not quite as bad. Given that we only had 2 hours to see it by the time we got there, we cut right to the chase.
This is what we mainly went to see. The polar bear cub. Very awesome.
They also had an amazing tiger prowling around, looking as though he were contemplating trying to jump the pit to get to those juicy morsels on the other side. They also had a bat exhibit, which I didn't take pictures of because of the low light and not wanting to frighten the bats with the flash. But the exhibit let you get in the same room with the bats, which was very cool.
Speaking of very cool, these are aardvarks. Poor guys...I actually did use the flash on them and the first picture had such a glare that I had to take another one, and by then they were awake. Sorry! They also had bison, wolves, the usual giraffes, camels, etc. They had a stingray touch pool, but you had to pay extra for it and since I work at the aquarium I decided I knew what cownose rays felt like. Oh, and then this happened.
That's the actual color of the sky. It rained pretty hard for a brief time, and we sheltered in the reptile/bird house. When it slacked off a little we ventured out to see the wolves, who were asleep, and then saw one or two other things before we decided to pack it in. They were about to close anyway.
Then we went to see Blue Man Group. We nearly didn't, though, because I thought I knew where the theatre was and it turned out I knew where a different theatre was, so we circled the block there for a bit looking for it, and eventually I went in to ask the guys in that theatre where it was, and luckily they were able to tell me. Now with all this Field Museum, traffic getting to Brookfield Zoo, and now heading to the theatre, we hadn't eaten all day. We needed food. So when we found the theatre, we parked (got a really primo parking space, I might add) and then set out to find food with what time we had left, which wasn't as much as I'd expected since we had to drive much further north to get to the correct theatre than I'd anticipated. After walking about 5 blocks and not finding anything we eventually ate at Eatzi's, which is kinda like a Whole Foods...that kind of grocery store. Then we walked back and made it just in time.
Blue Man Group was amazing. Very funny, very clever, and I really dug the music. One of the final bits in the performance had a sea of crepe paper being unrolled by the audience in amongst strobe lights that were strobing regular light and UV light as well. I really liked the audience interaction they did, and the guy in the row in front of us got picked to go up on stage (as a "plant"...they approached him before the show started and took him away to give him his instructions). I have to admit, though, that the fact that the tickets were free (thanks again to Rachel's relatives, who got the tickets through work) added to my enjoyment. Afterwards Rachel wanted coffee, so we went back to this Caribou Coffee we'd passed on the way there and then headed back to the apartment.
Next morning we arose, got our stuff together, and drove back home. We tried to hit an IHOP before we left Chicago (since we'd eaten so poorly the day before I was bound and determined to eat regular meals on the drive back...that almost worked) but we couldn't find the street it was on so we gave up and just headed out. We found one in Indiana later. Made pretty good time until we got to Chattanooga when we hit a traffic jam caused by an accident. We were detoured off the highway twice (the first time for no apparant reason and with no instructions from the detourers about where the detour was supposed to go), but eventually got back on the right road and headed south. I dropped Rachel off, headed home myself, and went to bed. We'd missed ARTC rehearsal, which I had intended to attend, but there was no way after the Chattanooga delay.
Now you'll notice from time to time I mentioned that we got lost. I left a bunch of those stories out of this entry simply because to include them all would have been to make the entry about twice as long. We were seemingly constantly lost, making first one wrong turn and then another, whether in the car or on foot. Even in the zoo we made wrong turns. It became quite comical after a while.
Whew! So that was the trip in a nutshell. Lots of sights seen, lots of great stories, and a good time had all around. And now that I've gotten this entry written I need to find time to caption the rest of the pictures on the Gallery. Later.