Road Trip!

The boys outside the Aquarium, with the Chicago skyline

We went to Chicago this weekend. The primary reason was to see the Jim Henson exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry, but we also wanted to get in some time at Shedd Aquarium.

The Jim Henson exhibit was neat – it covered the history of the Muppets, advertisements from the 60’s, Sesame Street, the Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, several movies, and some of his non-Muppet work were all covered. He was a very creative person.

The Aquarium was a lot of fun, too. The kids had never been there before. J and I have been there a few times, most recently in 2008 when we went to Chicago to celebrate our 15th anniversary. We saw the beluga whale/sea lion/dolphin show in their large amphitheater, and we enjoyed looking at all the tanks full of tropical fish, reefs, frogs, seahorses, and other water life. I petted a starfish, which was kind of slippery and hairy at the same time.


It is a fact that the only animals that were supposed to be in this display, but were not, were the Grand Cayman Blue Iguanas.



Rockhopper and Magellenic Penguins live peacefully, quietly, until one day, the one on the far left goes crazy and choas ensues.


We were not able to cover the whole place while we were there, and we’re planning to return in the spring to see the rest. Because we were already planning to return, we decided to buy a year membership, which not only saves us money over the long haul, but allowed us to go directly to the membership entrance, bypassing the slow-moving general admission line of what looked like at least 200 people. I felt a little guilty bounding up the steps past the huge line, but membership has its privileges, as they say.

We made the decision to go to Chicago on Wednesday after checking the weather forecast. Chicago was to be 48 and sunny on Saturday, and the weather was similar to home on Friday. Looked good to us, so we made hotel reservations and started packing. We didn’t check the weather for cities between here and there, so we were surprised when we hit an all-out snowstorm in western Michigan, about 40 miles from the Indiana border. We were going as slowly as 30 miles per hour for a while, and visibility was terrible. It was one of those times when you hope the car you’re behind doesn’t go off the road, because you might just follow their taillights off the road yourself.

The snow stopped in Indiana, but on Saturday we woke to two inches on the ground, and on the car. Fortunately, the roads were dry and there was no more snow for the rest of the trip. The weather in Chicago was beautiful and we had very pleasant walks to and from the car, which was parked under Soldier Field.


It's hard to drive when your car is like this. Hotel service surprisingly did not include vehicle snow removal, which resulted in no tip for the housekeeping staff. What do they need tips for anyway? They can eat as many of those warm cinnamon rolls as they want.

We all had a great time and the trip went well despite the surprise snowstorm.