Chicago Part 2: The Sights (3 comments)
Our first stop was The Brookfield Zoo. Mel had been pretty excited at the prospect of collecting new Mold-A-Ramas. She ended up getting a penguin and a koala and Julia came home with a bright orange walrus. As for the zoo, it was a zoo. I like playing the "find the animal in something vaguely resembling its native habitat" game, so I'll look at about everything. It was an easy game on Thursday; most of the animals were napping in the shade.
By the time Saturday had rolled around, Julia had gone home to play in another tennis tournament and Chas had made her way to Chicago. Mel, Chas, and I bought Chicago City Passes at The Shedd Aquarium and headed inside. Mel hadn't wanted to go, being a bit frightened of fish, but I told her there were also whales and dolphins and (most importantly) penguins, so she capitulated. That leads into my short story:
She nervously approached the tank, taking slow, deliberate steps. As she reached the glass, she slowly raised her gaze until she was staring directly into the eyes of her tormentor.
The fish swam around its territory, bored with the same corals and fellow fish. It couldn't remember how many times it had swum that same circuit, but this time, something felt different.
She took a deep breath.
"I eat you."
"On rice."
"With wasabi."
The fish started another lap around its tank.
Melanie turned around, proud of herself.
And yes, that's really how it happened. Mel really walked up to an exhibit and told the fish about her sushi preferences.
After the exchange, I giggled a bit and Mel was strangely better with the fish. She didn't really like any of them, except of course for the clown fish because they were adorable. Since we'd gotten started later than expected, having come home from the wedding a bit late the night before, I didn't spend as much time as I might have liked at the aquarium. But I got to see some frolicking gentoo penguins, which was neat, seeing as their the namesake for my preferred Linux distribution. Also noteworthy was the pregnant beluga whale. Mel and I had a bit of a disagreement as to whether my "all-access" wristband gave me permission to swim with it. Mel won, which was probably best for my safety.
We spent the rest of Saturday at The Field Museum. They're currently running an "Inside Ancient Egypt" exhibit. As our TiVo can attest, Mel's a big fan of mummies. Part of the exhibit was a showcase of mummified pets: mostly falcons and cats, but there were a pair of scarabs that intrigued me. I'd previously been under the impression that insects weren't treated to mummification, but that shows what I know. Aside from some meteorites, there wasn't much else that caught my fancy. I guess it's hard to get excited about stuffed animals when you've just been to the zoo. The field museum will be hosting Pompeii: Stories from an Eruption and Tutanhkamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs in the coming months, so I expect we'll be back.
As I'd expected, I thoroughly enjoyed our trip to The Museum of Science and Industry on Sunday. The day started at Game On, a playable history of video games. I beat Chas at pong, played Gran Turismo 3 in French, won a few games of tennis on the Sega Saturn, and made myself look foolish on some classic consoles I hadn't previously heard of. We were on a tight schedule, though, and we had to run off to see the U-Boat before I had a chance to play the original arcade version of the Star Wars game.
It didn't matter, though, since the submarine was great. I love seeing bleeding edge technology, even if it's from 60 years ago. Everyone walking down to see the sub was photographed, and that makes me suspicious, like I just got bumped up in a terror watch list for my public interest in war machines. We watched an IMAX movie about how awesome the human body is, Mel bought me some freeze-dried ice cream, and we scampered off to Bodyworlds.
Bodyworlds shows off the plastinated bits and pieces of over 200 bodies that were donated to science. Among my favorites were the exploded runner, the complete vascular structure of a forearm and hand, and the creepy guy with a hat, who is sadly not featured on the website. Highly worthwhile.
We found ourselves barely too late to tour the coal mine, so Mel and I coerced Chas into buying a U-505 Mold-A-Rama, even though the price had gone up 50% since her last visit.
Later that night, on our way back from dinner, I encountered a soda machine with a credit card option. I swiped my card, charged $1.00, and didn't win a free trip to space underneath the cap of my Sunkist orange soda. Still cool, though.