Road Trip 2010 - Day 9 Chicago Field Museum

Friday August 12, 2010

Finally a day of no driving! Henriët came over in the morning and we headed to Orange With a Peel for breakfast; a place that has terrific French Toast. I had French Toast infused with orange and served with a raspberry cream sauce and slivered almonds. Henriët and Carla had Chai Tea French Toast with Ricotta cheese. Andrew had a Popeye scramble (with spinach).

Henriët had to leave for work; Carla, Andrew, and I went to the Chicago Field Museum with is a natural history museum. It is on the lakefront in the same complex as Soldier Field, the aquarium, and planetarium.  They all have similar architecture; they kind of ruined Soldier Field (in my humble opinion) when they remodeled it; it's all modern glass stuck on top and around the beautiful old architecture.

Here is the outside of the Field Museum

The first stop was Sue, the most complete T-Rex ever. It is named Sue, not because of the gender, but because Sue is the first name of the woman who discovered her. I think it has been in the museum 10 years; a few years ago the prevailing theory on how T-Rex fed changed. They now think they were scavengers rather than predators; accordingly, they changed Sue's pose. Carla must have read about Sue being a scavenger before I did, because she wasn't scared at all about it looming down on us.

We spent at least 4 hours in the museum looking at Egyptian mummies, Native American migrations, mammals of Africa, climate change, and mammoths and mastodons. Some of the items have been in the collection over 100 years.  I didn't get any pictures inside because there is a no flash policy and the lights are very low to reduce the deterioration. 

Leaving the museum we were presented with the Chicago skyline, a portion of which you see here:

As we walked down to the aquarium and the lake side we heard jet engines. Surprise, surprise, there was a water and air show going on over the beach and the blue angels were in town. We looked up and the whole squadron roared over  at a height of less than 500 feet; just over the tree tops. By the time I got the camera ready they were long gone leaving only their contrails.

I took a dozen pics but could barely get them in the frame. They move so fast it was hard to pick them up in the LCD frame of the camera. I got one as they were headed over the city.

On the way back to Andrew's apartment we stopped by De Paul

and saw Henriët on the job

This is where they met; he dropped by to pick up the key to a practice room and BAM.

Carla and I went back to Andrew's apartment for a nap while Andrew went back to campus and practiced until Henriët got off work. 

Then we went out for sushi at Wakamono. It was terrific. The sunomono  had strips of crab over the top. We wanted to linger over drinks, but lightening started appearing and the wind kicked up. It was a couple of blocks back to Andrew's apartment so we beat it back ahead of the storm. For dessert we had the more of Henriët's chocolate caramel mint crisp. What a way to spend the day.

Tomorrow we head to the Art Institute and hopefully a trip to the top of the (Jeff) Willis tower.