Wednesday August 10 - Chicago Aquarium

Henriët had two rehearsals on Wednesday and Andrew had a set of lessons to give at a high school on the South Side. So, Carla and I would be on our own for a good part of the day. On his way south, Andrew dropped us off at the Shedd Aquarium which is near Soldier Field. We felt like we got dropped off for day camp.

We walked out to the point on the south side of the bay where the planetarium is. We had a great view of s regatta going on

Many of the boats headed south had their spinnakers out.

On our way back on the other side we saw a small little beach

It was a fairly cool day: about 75 degrees so the beach wasn't overcrowded.

The aquarium was pretty underwhelming. We had to stand in line for an hour to get entry tickets. Once inside it was loud and crowded and the exhibits weren't so great. We did get to see some dolphins swimming in a big tank and a few beluga whales. We also enjoyed the jelly fish exhibit. The aquarium is a destination for a lot of summer camps; the place was absolutely filled to the brim with packs of 40-50 kids in matching t-shirts. I don't mind the kids; it's fun to have that energy but they certainly don't think twice about jostling and pushing and shoving.

The other phenomenon we noticed was that everyone jostled to the front of every exhibit to take pictures of the fish with their iPhones, Androids, and portable cameras. So, not only do you have to look over and around people but also their outstretched arms holding cameras. I'm thinking to myself, "you'll never look at those pictures."

I guess I sound old. We have had so many great days here in Chicago, I guess they can't all be home runs.

On top of that, my camera battery ran out (maybe I was just jealous that I couldn't get those pictures myself) after I grabbed some pictures of the skyline from the point. I'll leave you with these