Year 3, July 25th, 2018: Wednesday, V11, Part 1, The Shedd Aquarium

We got up really early so we could get to downtown Chicago as soon as possible.  But we had to stop and get transit passes (the elevated "L" train and the buses) before we got into the 1 hr long traffic.  I really don't know how Chiacagoians do this commute thing every day.  Even if you aren't driving, but taking transit, it takes so much time!  I know that Chicago is an old city and not designed well like Indianapolis was, but I'm still taken aback at the craziness and I didn't even drive!  Jared isn't fond of the drivers up there as well.  He said he was mentally exhausted from dealing with the insanity!  But we made it just after the first rush of aquarium attenders.  We were right on time to see the first dolphin/animal show of the day, which was wonderful!  I think we spent about 3 hrs there, because everyone started getting hungry, thanks to traffic taking forever and breakfast being so early because kids were on Indiana time and not Illinois time.  We also had other things to do that day, which will be in a separate post.  After the dolphin show, we all went through the underground exhibits with penguins and such and saw the dolphins, belugas, and sea lions as they swam.  The kids played in the penguin rook area, too.  Afterwards, we split up to view the different fish tanks featuring fish and other aquatic animals from different regions.  Then we met up for lunch on the lawn between the Shedd Aquarium and the Field (Natural History) Museum.  The weather was perfect, that's for sure.  After lunch, we took a bus to Millennial Park, and after seeing "The Bean" we split up again, Benaiah going with Grandma and Grandpa to the Navy Pier and the rest of us went off to find the American Doll store.  To be continued.....

Up early because it's 7 am at home, and 6 am in Chicago.  Plus Keturah wanted to play with Abishia's Lego set.  "Crunch, crinkle, click, clack."

I spot a commuter train!

Chicago traffic = I will never live in a big city.  And yes I realize that if I say that that God might "call" us to a big city.  Um, no, he must not because I will not.  Blech.

If I had editing software and more time, I'd make this panorama taken from the steps of the Shedd Aquarium much better.  But I don't.  And people were barely tolerating this stop anyway.

Hanging out with Beluga whales, which are some of the cutest marine mammals on the planet.

The last time we were here, they didn't have these awesome screen/curtains covering the massive floor to ceiling windows and it was very hard to take pictures  But now, they have these screens that they use during the show.  They even encouraged us to take pictures and videos and share them.  Awesome!

Yes, there will be a lot of pictures of dolphins jumping.  These are white sided dolphins that live on the west coast.

(There will be more photos from the DSLR camera in a bit.  I think these are all iPhone pics.)

They also brought in an owl and had us try to turn just our head and not our eyes.  Very interactive and enthusiastic show!

Sometimes I can adjust the iPhone's aperture better than the DSLR.  Here are the dolphins playing underwater.

Watching dolphins and eating a granola bar snack.

Justin is always game to do whatever I want him to do.  So, I made him put on the penguin costume when both Abishai and Keturah would not.  Sometimes it's nice having a people pleaser/peacemaker in the family.

Waddle like a penguin!

Oh, just a selfie with a very large, old looking crab.

Navy Pier in the background with the Shedd Aquarium in the foreground.

Teenager = mood.  Waiting for the bus to take us to Millennial Park.  (And for once in my lifetime, I spelled millennial correctly without spellcheck!  Sheesh!)

NOW we are onto the DSLR pictures.  Cute way to tell the world what your business is.  An old excavator that looks like the one in the Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel book, plus a small dump truck.  That's the Earth in the excavator bucket.  This was right near our hotel.  In fact, you can see it in the background on the right.

Transit from here near our hotel would take about 1 1/2 hrs to get into the heart of downtown.

City views on the way into the Shedd.  (I'm getting tired of typing Aquarium, so Shedd it is).  Since we didn't actually go to the Willis/Sears tower like we did 14 years ago when Aaron proposed to Shauna on the lawn in front of it, I took a ton of pictures of it, so be warned.

Abishai's favorite part: all the big buildings of downtown.

I'm a little disappointed that I didn't think to clean the windshield before I took some pictures on our way in to the Shedd, but you get the point.  They literally have buildings going over the highways and streets.  Yes, we went UNDER the building!

Our first glimpse of the "L" train.  Kind of reminds me of the Incredibles movies when both Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl stopped one each in their respective movies.

Not sure what many of these buildings are, but they are much bigger than our Indianapolis ones.  I tried to get the kids to appreciate their sheer size but they weren't interested like I was.  I grew up in a small town with a very, very small city nearby that I hardly ever went into, so any city of any size is fascinating and I always want to see if they actually look like the cities in the movies or not.

Just outside the Shedd Aquarium.

The currently have these huge sculptures made up entirely of items that have washed ashore all over the world.  It's supposed to be talking piece about conserving our oceans and planet and being responsible with our garbage by choosing wisely when we buy and how we dispose of it.  Point well taken.

Let's play "I Spy." What do you see here?  There's Croc brand shoes, bottle caps, flip flops, tires,....

....2 liter bottles, and all kinds of other plastic type items.  Amazing artistry but also such a poignant piece that makes a point.

Some of these museums have been around since Gary was a kid.  I'm not sure how old the Shedd is but it definitely is worth the price of admission.  Lots of information and it flows nicely.  Gorgeous animals.

View to the north from the Shedd at the Navy Pier and John Hancock building.

Looking northwest from the Shedd.

Willis/Sears tower to the west from the Shedd.

The huge 360 fish tank is the centerpiece of the aquarium and features countless numbers of sea life.  We lingered a bit here but also wanted to make the first dolphin show of the day so we didn't stay too long.

Just another one of those statement pieces.

I spy water bottles and sponges.

Magestic belugas.  Just beautiful.

I spent 10 minutes trying to adjust my DSLR camera so I could take pictures during the show, but then they covered the windows with screens/curtains which improved the situation 1,000x.  It's a beautiful arena though.  The pictures I do have from the Shedd from 14 years ago were taken here in this arena.  I would think some of the same dolphins are still here, too.  They do live a decently long life.

Lake Michigan in the background.

Curtain down, ready for the show.

Dolphins are easy to train and they do it, just like they do for sea lions, so they can easily do routine vet checks and to keep the animals' minds stimulated.  In fact, after the show, they closed off the arena so that they could have more practice time with the dolphins, do their morning checks, play with them, and perhaps feeds them.

Another sea lion, yeah!

And he is loud and does tricks!

Sweet handstand from the sea lion.  It's kind of weird to see a sea lion in one city and then another one in another city, both doing similar tricks.

I was very happy with some the shots I got like this one.  See why these breed of dolphins is called the white sided dolphin?  There's lots of breeds of dolphins beyond the typical bottle nosed dolphin you see most commonly depicted in media and on souvenirs.  (Oo, I finally spelled souvenirs without spell check, yeah!)

Learning about tide pools.  I think these are warm water ones because we never found these on PEI shores.

Penguins similar to the Indy zoo's ones.  The Rockhopper and the Magellianic.

My little penguin playing.

Trying to climb and get away from Daddy.

The sign says NOT to slide down on your belly, but I'm kind of glad he did.  Now Justin is a true penguin!

Playing in a research submarine.

He wouldn't stand still long enough for a picture, so this is all I got from him.

Justin really gets into trying things out.  He's working on using the robotic arm to pick up samples from the ocean floor.

Picking up samples from the ocean floor.

There was another stingray touch pool, but this time it was included in the price of admission.  Grandpa and Justin were the only ones who wanted to touch it.  The zookeeper said that they only put females in the tank and since it's outside, in the winter, they have their own separate tank with their male counterparts inside the aquarium.

Again, Justin took the time to learn something about coral.

Now we got into all the individual tanks for different regions.  I actually didn't write down the exact names, but there is a great variety and sample of each area.

"Clown" fish?  Or fish that looks like it has mascara and lipstick on.  God has such a sense of humor sometimes creating a fish that looks like that.

Thousands of species, so little time to study them all.

Sea snake!

Sharks!  Jared asked the zookeeper why it doesn't eat the other fish and she said that they sharks are handfed and some only eat 1-2 times per week because they are so efficient at conserving their energy gliding through the water.  Pretty intimidating though.

Abishai finally was happy that we were here and wanting to explore a bit more.  He doesn't wake up well from naps in the car.

Real coral.  Not every tank has real coral, but they are growing some right here.

Finding Nemo out of all this trash!  And yes, Benaiah did find a nemo, took a picture, and put it on his Instagram.

The closest we'll get to seeing a sea turtle.  I thought this aquarium had the moving walkways and sea turtle touching.  I guess I was confusing this one and the one in California.  Hm,...

An exhibit aimed to show how a remote group of people in the Phillippines who work in harmony with the fish population.

Tools of the fishing trade.

Real live growing coral.

Kinda cute, eh?

Huge nasty fish that can grow even bigger!

Piranha?  These are Amazon based fish.

Oo, another boat to sit on.  Honestly, this kid is not as interested in these museums and zoos as I thought he would be.  I think he just gets overwhelmed and shuts down.

European cuttlefish.

Little shark looking fish.

Purple sea urchins and fish that yes, swim vertically like that or at least hang out like that.

So colorful and beautiful.  These were all in the galleries that shot off from the 360 fish tank like spokes on a wheel.  I should have gotten a picture of how it was set up.  Very easy to walk through.

The largest crab ever!  Well, to us anyway.  That's Jared's hand in the picture.

Hi, Mr. Ugly.

Another type of crab that looks like he's been here a long time.

Isopod or sea slug.

And ugly fish, too.  The Bering wolffish.

I found Nemo!

Lake Sturgeons that can be found in the Great Lakes.

Ducks!

Aww, cute webbed feet!

Duck diving for food.

Getting to touch a lake sturgeon and yes, Jared did touch one

I thought this little guy looked like he was painted with gold on the edges.  He looked like he had shimmery gold color all over him.

Abishai loved the alligators!  He kept saying that they are like his light up alligator at home.  He wasn't afraid of them either.

Finally interested in seeing some of the fish and sea life.  But also getting stir crazy for lunch.  The others were already getting lunch set up at this point.  But Jared knows I like to go through museums thoroughly and linger a bit, so we took our time, Abishai, Jared and I.  The other kids had split off with the grandparents after the stingrays to look at the rest of the exhibits.

Hermit crabs in the "coast/Island" biome.

Can I climb up and get closer?

Wow, cool!  These animals live a really long time and the original one, Granddad arrived here in 1933 in time for the Century of Progress Wrld Fair and died in 2017.  He lived more than 100 years in captivity!  That's crazy!

Another example of how colorful and diverse fish can be!

A long nosed sea turtle!  Looks kind of ugly though!

I would have so played with this knock off marine biologist Barbie when I was a kid.  Sweet!

My grandmother used to make braided rugs so I thought this 3D cube that maybe you could sit on was a unique piece in the gift shop.

Always hand in hand.  Time for lunch!

Second to last vacation picnic.  Gorgeous day outside between the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.  The planetarium is just up the way as well.

Yup, we can tell we are near water; there are seagulls around.

Nice sign!

Another view of Lake Michigan with Shedd to the left.

Ready for our first city bus ride!  Who's excited?  Sure we could ride the bus in Indy, but we don't have a need to.  We can easily find a parking garage and walk it.  But not in Chicago.

I made a playlist of all the videos.  Enjoy!
Chicago Day 2A

Beautiful.