Wednesday, July 29, 2009

It's Not Who You Are, It's Who You Know


Argh! There be Pirates in this here building...

The Kid and I went to The Field Museum of Natural History. Amongst all of the attractions in Chicago, The Shedd Aquarium, Museum of Science and Industry, Art Institute, it has always been my favorite. The last time we went to the Planetarium I fell asleep. It wasn't because of the show, but it was warm and dark in there and I was tired. I wasn't the only guilty party, Mr. Slave Driver dozed off and a guy two rows in front of us was snoring.


So anyway, my sister-in-law is a volunteer for the paleontology department at the Field Museum and she got us into the lab where they work scraping the matrix away from the fossilized bone.



She's working on the tip of the tail bone of a dinosaur they call "Jim" (after the fellow who found it.)



Jim, an Ichthyosaur, was discovered in Nevada, so Jim and I are neighbors.



This is what Jim might have looked like

After my SIL showed us where she worked she had to leave and The Kid and I wandered around the museum for a couple more hours then walked to the "L" stop and took the red line to the brown line and that’s how we got back to my brother's house. But first we stopped at the Jewel/Osco and got some Okey-Dokey Cheese Popcorn and some Jays Barbeque potato chips, which I jones for because you can't get them anywhere else.



The Kid and her Aunt. The Kid is getting weary of me taking her picture all the time.

4 comments:

Belle's personal assistant said...

I love the pics. The kid looks like she is standing by some welded gumbies!!!
The museums are way cool. I missed those when I was in Chicago. We were too worried about how to get home!!!

abledsm-- When asked what happened when confronted by vampires, the victim responded "abledsm"

Belle's personal assistant said...

What's with the pirate?

Anonymous said...

The Kid, lovely kid, seems to be amid a bunch of headless giants. Those are some, well, scary sculptures.

I don't think of Chicago as being part of the midwest; more like part of the NYC-DC-Chicago triangle. But if the people are as nice as you say, then it must be the midwest.

It's prettier than I'd figured, too.

echomp: when a virus ravages your hard drive.

Lisa Deon said...

What's with the pirate?

They have a special exhibit running the "Golden Age" of pirates. It was interesting because the ususal "atmosphere" such as sound and lighting (sorry no pictures- not allowed) the smell of burning wood and salt water are used in certain parts.

Dusty, the sculpture is a whole bunch of just legs walking called "Agora" and when you are in the middle they make you feel like you are a child. They also get much closer together the further into the middle you get. It's in Grant park and yes, weird.