Chicago Field Museum

Hubry had three full days of research in the Wheaton archives, which was plenty of time for us to have some fun adventures in the Chicago area.  We decided that the Filed Museum of Natural History was the best downtown Chicago museum for us to visit.  This is mostly because of all the stuffed birds and mammals at the museum.

Originally I had thought we would make an adventure of it and take a train, but after looking at the route and realizing we would need 4 different connections between trains  and buses, I decided it would actually be much simpler (and cheaper) for us to drive and park.  I'm glad we did as it started snowing while at the museum, and it was nice to be able to jump into our car when we  were done.

We literally spent 1.5 hours in the stuffed bird and mammal section - and I can not believe how many different species they have on display.  I guess they've had them for a long time, and one thing we kept feeling was that the birds are much bigger in real life - especially some of them.  I'd be interested in knowing if they've actually gotten bigger over time, or if there's something in the stuffing of them that makes them smaller.

We also walked through Ancient Egypt and an underground tomb, then visited the ancient Americas.  There is a pretty big difference between readers and non-readers at a museum.  My younger two mostly look at things and run on, whereas my oldest actually wanted to stop and read the descriptions of everything.

After getting our fill of natural history, we drove down to the edge of Lake Michigan.  It was the first time the children have seen a Great Lake, and since they loved reading Paddle to the Sea and studying the lakes I couldn't leave the city without letting them see the edge of it

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