This past weekend Jessica came to Chicago for a visit. I took Friday off and drove to Milwaukee after Makai went to bed and Dallas got back from a business trip to Indiana. Pouring rain at night = no bueno. But I wanted to get there Thursday so that we could drive back to Chicago Friday morning and still have the day to do stuff!
Everyone in this whole theater was taking 3D glasses selfies!
On Friday morning we got up and ate breakfast and drove straight from Oak Creek to the Adler Planetarium. I’d been to the Adler before (2006 – by myself, 2008 – work event, 2009 – with Stephanie), but the last time was 6 years ago, so I was happy to go back. When we got there it was cold and raining and we had to wait in a line outside the building! But not for long.. and a great surprise was that it was Illinois Resident Discount Day, so we got upgraded tickets (unlimited shows) because the general admission was free. I think we paid $17/ticket instead of $29!
I think Jess thought the exhibits were a little dry. They are. It seems like they tried to make things more interactive with tablets, but I only saw one tablet that was actually working. We still had fun looking at everything and spending the day together. And we saw two movies in the dome and one in the 3D theater. The weird thing was that I thought I remembered the movies being more…. movie like. Like with great theatrical value and Harrison Ford narrating. These shows were narrated by people standing there with a microphone and were not as crazy produced. Oh. Actually. That was in New York. There was a natural history museum I used to go to there that had a Planetarium where I saw that specific Harrison Ford-narrated show many times! 🙂
After our day at the Adler, we picked up Makai from daycare and headed home. We had Jessica’s very belated birthday gift and Makai was very interested in helping her open it! For dinner we ordered Jessica’s favorite: Pizza. From Dante’s!
On Friday morning we woke up bright and early and bought our tickets to the Field Museum online so we wouldn’t have to stand in line. Makai was coming with us because Dallas was golfing. I was a little nervous, to tell the truth. He had never been to a museum (aside from the Children’s Museum) and I didn’t know how he would tolerate it.
Off Color Brewing teamed up with the Field Museum to make Tooth & Claw beer!
Turns out: Fine! Makai was happy to be in the stroller as Jess and I walked around taking in the exhibits. There were a few that we let him out to explore and he was good with that too. We had tickets to a 3D movie about the T-Rex (they wouldn’t give him glasses) and he was fine with that too. We had lunch in the museum cafe and he sat nicely and ate his hotdog and then fell asleep in his stroller as we walked around for another hour. We were at the museum for multiple hours … and put in about 5 miles of walking! I think we saw every permanent exhibit.
I guess I had only been to the Field Museum once before. I thought I’d gone one time before that, but there’s no record of it here, and you KNOW if I had been there I’d have noted it here. haha. I guess I really like that boat in the Pacific Island exhibit. I took the same photo both times I visited the museum!
I really like the Field Museum. It’s beautiful and informative and old and historic and modern with a lot of interactive technology. It is good for 12 year olds and it is good for 1 year olds and it is good for (almost) 40 year olds.
P.S. If you go early in the morning at like 9 am when the museum opens you can get the first parking spot in the east parking lot and walk 50 steps right into the East entrance with no line. This is the disabled / stroller entrance, so bring your stroller. Our tickets were purchased online so we just had to show an ID and go in. When we walked in the doors Makai said “WOW! WOW! PRETTY!!!” before we’d even seen one exhibit!
P.S.S. In the basement, near the east entrance, there’s a special play area just for little kids. Makai loved the music room with all the drums.
P.S.S.S. I went to the Children’s Museum on a Friday and the Adler on a Friday and the crowds were horrible. The Field Museum on a Saturday was very tame in comparison. It was busy but not jammed. Maybe because there were no school/summer camps there? Maybe I shouldn’t try to keep avoiding the weekend crowd.
P.S.S.S.S. Get the soft serve or an Icee across from the east entrance. You deserve it! It was a long day and you walked 5 freaking miles inside of the museum!
After the museum we went home to rest for a while. Then I took Makai and Jessica to Buona Terra for dinner. Makai had never been there. He didn’t like what we ordered (butternut squash and gnocchi) and let us know by spitting his food out and blowing raspberries like we put poison on his tongue! I think he was just very distracted. The waiters were so nice to him (and us) and one guy even gave him two little plastic dinosaurs, which was awesome. I wanted to get him one at the museum for a souvenir, but refused to pay $4.95 for ten cents worth of cheap plastic. If you ask him now, “What did you see at the museum?” he says “Dinosaur!” and then says “ROARRRRR!”
On Sunday Richard and Amanda came down to visit and to collect Jessica. We had brunch at The Radler, got frozen yogurt at Yogurt Daze, ran around between rain showers at Palmer Square and ran into a coworker of mine on the street. An unspeakable amount of time had gone by since Makai had seen his Aunty Amanda, who works many weekends, so it was great to hang out with everyone.
Later on, Richard and Amanda left for home (with a stop at Uncle Mike’s!) and we dropped by JP and Rita’s barbecue. The weather actually got really hot and sunny.
Nice weekend with Jessica and the family!