Our outing today was to the Field Museum, which, if you aren't familiar, houses one of the most famous T-Rex skeletons named Sue. I visited Sue myself before I had children, and was somewhat in awe. It naturally follows that I thought Neko would be astounded. She's a total dinosaur nut right now, so I happily babbled to anyone who would listen about how amazing that moment would be when we walked into the museum and she first laid eyes on Sue.
You would think by this point in my parenting career I would have learned that this whole gig is completely unpredictable and that nothing ever goes as you've planned. True to form, we walked in to see Sue after much hype and excitement, I pointed and Neko looked up and said, "Yeah, I've seen that before." She then walked off to some case full of stuffed birds and exclaimed, "Mom, look at these BIRDS."
So whatever. Sue? Yawn. Stuffed birds? Wheeee!
To redeem herself, she did cozy up to the Brachiosaurus outside. You know, after she crushed my spirit.
Shep and Ellery loved the music room, where I actually got a chance to take a few photos because it was a room with a door. That closes. And contains children. Super fun display with musical instruments from around the world.
On the walk home my nature child was able to find this enormous mushroom in the middle of a city of skyscrapers. She demanded I take a photo, because clearly large fungi is far more interesting than an nearly-complete ancient fossil.
Despite my disappointing dinosaur moment, it really has been a wonderful vacation so far. Our location is ideal. Navy Pier and Michigan Avenue are to the North and Millennium Park and all the museums lie to our south. We've been able to walk nearly everywhere. In fact, I think I walked about four hours today. My hip, which I seem to think is only 18 years old, is now reminding me that three babies treated it like a lounge chair on some Caribbean beach, and now it is payback time.
But other than the dinosaur and my future hip replacement? Excellent.