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| The Field Museum |
Museum and A Movie
Since it was Sunday and we had a long and exhausting day on Saturday, we slept in a little later. We left the hotel around noon.
After a stop at the gas station close to the hotel for a fill up, and some coffee for my wife we headed toward the downtown area. By the way, I paid more for a gallon of gas at that fill up than ever before in my life: $4.30.
Once again, our drive on I-90/I-94, the Eisenhower Expressway was slow because of traffic volume. Soon we exited onto West Adams Street and headed east.
With information I had found online I had programmed the GPS with the address of the parking garage where we wanted to park. At least I thought it was the right address.
Our destination was the Museum Campus area where the Field Museum, Alder Planetarium, and Shedd Aquarium are located.
As it turned out I had entered the address for the Millennium Park public parking area. This put us several blocks northwest of the Museum Campus. But luckily this was one times when two wrongs made a right.
I knew where Millennium Park was in relationship to the museums. We had passed the park going south when we circled around the Field Museum on our detour to Navy Pier the night before. So even though we arrived at the wrong place initially, I knew how to get where we wanted to be.
Once again we left the car in a parking garage, right next to Soldier Field. This would cost $22 but it was the only time we'd pay for parking this day.
When we exited the garage we saw a really cool wall just outside Soldier Field. The wall had a series of the military seals on it; one for each branch of the US armed forces. There was also a thin stream of water running down the entire wall. If you look at the bottom of the wall in this picture you can see the water.
At the end of the wall to the right was an engraved dedication of Soldier Field.
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| ...To the Men and Woman of The Armed Services |
I was excited about visiting this museum because of two things. First there was a unique prehistoric exhibit which I'll write more about later. Also there was an exhibit of Egyptian artifacts.
At the front admissions desk we found out that our advanced purchased City Pass ticket entitled us to go to our choice of two 3D movies.
Upon entering the main floor of the museum we came face to face with these two large pachyderms.
We went took the elevator to the upper level to the theater and got our tickets for the 1:30 presentation of a movie about recovery of Egyptian artifacts.
With some time before the movie started we went into the hall of dinosaurs. In that room was a variety of fossilized skeletons. The most interesting and scariest one to me was the velociraptor.
This display of both the skeleton and recreation of this prehistoric "swift predator" was probably my 2nd favorite dinosaur display in the entire museum.
Notice the spiky teeth on the skeleton and the 3 inch claws on both. These physical features made the velociraptor a brutally dangerous creature.
Also in this room was a Tyrannosaurus...
and a triceratops.
The museum is a center for paleontology; specializing in the restoration of dinosaur fossils. Just outside the dinosaur hall was an actual working fossil preparation lab. It has large windows so you can see the scientists at work restoring actual fossils.
Soon it was time for us to go into the theater for our 3D movie. It was a film explaining the history of Egyptian mummification, the theology behind it, and the subsequent discovery and excavation of the thousands of sarcophagi (yes, that is the plural of the word "sarcophagus").
The movie was entertaining and the chance to sit and relax for about 20 minutes was welcome as well.
Excited as we were about seeing the Egyptian artifacts on the ground floor, we decided to explore some of the upper floor exhibits before heading down the exhibit.
We went to the northeast corner of the building to visit the Brooker Gallery. I expected to see paintings or some kind of abstract sculpture that had to do with animals or nature. What we discovered was the most interesting aspect of Egyptian history in the entire museum. A display that seemed to transcend time.
Scientists using the combination of modern medical technology, archaeology, and anthropology gave us a glimpse of the people who were actually part of Egypt's ancient past.
Using CAT scan technology, Field Museum scientists were able to create a replica of the skull of the mummy inside artifact 111517 without even opening the sarcophagus.
Then using average calculations, compiled by Egyptian anthropologists, in regard to average thickness of skin, size of nose, mouth and ears from people of the same time period as the mummy, those same scientists created a 3D model of his head and face.
Here is the reconstruction of the this teenage Egyptian who, according to the hieroglyphs on his coffin, was named Minirdis.
As amazing as this picture looks staring at this recreation "face to face" is like looking through a portal back into time.
Here's another mummy, a female, that the scientists brought into modern times, using the same reconstruction method.
I don't recall seeing her name but as you can see she was a true Egyptian beauty.
Once we left the Brooker Gallery we took the stairs with the intention of heading down to the ground floor. After descending the first flight to the main floor we decided that we needed to get something to drink.
We stopped at the Corner Bakery to wet our whistle. What we discovered was that this was a cafeteria with a "Penera Bread" type menu of salads, sandwiches, baked goods and desserts.
Since it was almost mid afternoon we decided to eat lunch there. The only other restaurant in the building was a McDonald's on the ground floor.
Now I knew, like any other tourist attraction anywhere, the cost of the food here was going to be high. I didn't mind paying $8 for a medium sized salad for Paula or $10 for a sandwich for me. They were both rather good. The thing that really got under my skin was the cost of a 12oz bottle of water: $2.50. Five bucks for 2 bottles of water. What a rip off!
Refueled and somewhat energized after eating, we headed for the "Inside Ancient Egypt" exhibit one floor down.There were a lot of sarcophagi, mummies, sculptures, and other artifacts on display.
However there were also a lot of display cases that were empty because their contents were on loan to other museums.
The mummies and their coffins were all very interesting. They could also be considered ancient works of art. You could tell when a sarcophagus contained the mummy of a rich man or a member of royalty by how brightly painted and decorative it was.
I was surprised at the number of children who were mummified and entombed in their own private body shaped coffins. Here's a picture of a recreation of the tomb of a pair of siblings just as they were originally found.
But without a doubt the most memorable artifact we saw, and the one Paula and I will be talking about for years to come, was a limestone sculpture of a woman wearing a wig.
It was labeled as being from the "New Kingdom Period". This was the time between the 16th and 11th century BC and considered the civilization's most prosperous time.
However what was unique about this sculpture, at least to Paula and me, was how much it looked like Michael Jackson. That's right THE Michael Jackson. Ironically the sculpture was missing part of it's nose.
Could the "King of Pop" have lived a past life? Or did he see this sculpture at sometime during his life and made it his life's mission make himself look like it? The world will never know.
The picture doesn't convey the close resemblance to MJ as much as seeing in person did but see if you agree with us.
The next ground floor exhibit we went through was called "Underground Adventure." It can be best explained as an educational version of the "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" Movie Adventure Playground in Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida.
It's a walking tour through tunnels in the soil just below the ground's surface in any typical backyard. The visitor is "reduced" to 1/100 their normal size as they enter the exhibit. A series of dioramas and interactive exhibits teach the guest about the plants, animals, and microbes that make up the ecosystem that is the earth's soil.
I thought this exhibit was very clever and imaginative but it didn't really interest me. This is evident by the fact that I have no pictures of it.
However, this exhibit is a very good place for kids ages 4-11 to learn about the miniature world that exists right under their feet by immersing them in it. Elementary school science teachers would love this exhibit.
At this point we had seen all we were interested in on the ground floor. We made one more elevator trip to the upper level to see the rooms that featured exhibits of gemstones and jade.
Our experience with the extensive displays of gemstones in the Smithsonian Natural History museum, two years ago, pretty much satiated my appetite for seeing gemstones for the rest of my life. However Paula is always interested in gems.
These rooms with gemstones weren't anywhere near as big or numerous as those at the Smithsonian; so we went through them very quickly.
Back on the Main floor, We went through a few more exhibits about culture and history of specific groups of people and areas of the world. But I don't remember much about them except that , for a time, we couldn't find our way out of one of them.
As we were going toward the stairs we saw yet another Egyptian exhibit. It was a reproduction of the tomb of an ancient Egyptian princess. The path through the rooms was designed to recreate the experience of entering the sepulcher for the first time just as the discovering archaeologists did.
The first couple of rooms of the tomb were empty because, as a placard on the wall explained, the grave robbers got there before you.
After going through the rooms we walked up some stairs and walked along a walkway where we could look down on one of the rooms we just went through.
At the end of the walkway was a set of metal stairs that spiraled around a pole. At this point I was just expecting it take us back down the level from which we had ascended.
But after about 2 dozen or so steps it was apparent we were not going to come out at the same level. Our continuing descent reminded me of the stairs inside the Statue of Liberty.
Finally, when the stairs ended we had gone all the way down to the ground floor and were in the "Inside Ancient Egypt" exhibit again.
I realized that the purpose of the stairs was to illustrate that archaeologists had to descend far into the tombs of Egypt to find their treasures because of grave robbers and looters.
At this point in the day, I was tired but also anxious to go see the exhibit that was the real reason I wanted to come to the Field Museum in the first place. It was the center piece of the Main Floor and one of Chicago's oldest residence: a 67 million year old lady named Sue.
Because there was a great dispute in regard to the ownership rights to this historic discovery it took 7 years before it could be sold.
The Field Museum bought it at auction for $8.6 million. The purchase was made possible because of the Field Museum's partnership with several other organizations including the Walt Disney Company's Parks and Resort division.
I'll have more on the partnership between the museum and Disney in regard to the purchase and restoration of Sue in a future post on my other blog:Goofy Guy's Off World Disney Blog.
Here's a preview of that post. A picture of a complete replica of Sue that's on display at Dinoland in Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park.
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| Doesn't She Look Like The Happiest Dino On Earth? |
I loved this T-Rex. She was so amazing and is so special. Look at her from a couple other angles.
That last angle was really intimidating. She brought to mind a poem about a Tyrannosaurus Rex that I read as a kid. In describing the dinosaur the poem stated:
His head held high. He looked afar
And if he chance to meet you
He'd say politely, "Hello, friend. "
How are you? Please to eat you."
Between the Smithsonian and the Field Museum I have seen a lot of dinosaur skeletons. Sue is my all time favorite.
After the effects of the adrenaline rush from standing in front of Sue subsided I ran out of gas. I had had enough. I just wanted to leave, get in the car and rest.
Paula wanted to look through the museum store before we left. I looked for my traditional refrigerator magnet to remember my visit. I found one but when there was no cashier around and I didn't have the energy to look for one. I put the magnet back.
With that our day at Chicago's Field Museum came to a conclusion. We left about 4:30.
Our evening plans included going to dinner and a movie. Paula wanted to see the new Batman movie, The Dark Night Rises, at an IMAX theater.
We could have stayed in the downtown area and gone to the IMAX theater at the Navy Pier. But we didn't want to have to pay for parking at the pier again and we wanted to get out of the city a bit.
Before we left our hotel that morning I found the location of an IMAX theater about 30 minutes from our hotel at the Woodridge Mall in Woodridge, IL. I promised my wife a nice evening including dinner at the Cheesecake Factory that was located at the same mall; or so I thought.
I programmed the mall's address in the GPS. We ran into some traffic backed up because of construction on an off ramp. But by 5:45 we were at our destination. The only problem was that there was no Cheesecake Factory.
As it turned out I had gotten two different malls confused. The Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg,IL northwest of Chicago was where the Cheesecake Factory was. It would have been a great place to do some shopping in some well known stores. But it closed at 6PM which was about the time we arrived at the other mall.
The mall in Woodridge was southwest of the city. The bad news was that there was no Cheesecake Factory. The good news was there was an IMAX theater. The better news was that over the course of the rest of the night we would park in 3 different places for FREE!
I bought our tickets for the 7PM IMAX showing of "Dark Night Rises." We had an hour, plenty of time, to get some dinner and be in our seats in time for the start of the movie. Our only restaurant choice was Buffalo Wild Wings. Not exactly the type of restaurant we were looking for but it would do.
We sat down about 6:05pm and placed our orders about 5 minutes later. That was plenty of time to get our food, eat and make it back to the theater. Or that's what we thought.
It took more than 40 minutes for our food to arrive and I didn't even order pizza. I was really upset. We had to eat much too quickly and had to rush to the movie.
The theater that was only about half full. We sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the 2 1/2 hour finale of the Dark Knight trilogy. It was the type of rest that we needed. We re-hydrated with bottled water and a large soda.
As we left the theater we felt slightly recharged. We were tired but not exhausted.
Before we headed back to our hotel we went to a frozen yogurt shop called "Nuff". We each got about 6oz of a variety of different flavors.
We sat at a round table outside the store in the cool night air and ate our dessert. The frozen dessert wasn't very good. Not anywhere close to the flavor or quality of what we get a Stakz, the best frozen yogurt place near our house.
We left the Woodridge mall and followed NoVa's directions back to the hotel. Instead of taking us back by way of the major freeways like we had traveled on up until that time it took us on local county roads.
This route brought us through several towns that weren't exactly the best places to drive through at night. It was nothing dangerous but it helped us realize that our hotel was just barely in the "good side" of town.
We got back to our hotel about 11PM which was relatively early considering our return time the 2 previous nights.
Our 2nd day in Chicago was history. Our plans for day 3 included a return to the Museum Campus and spending an evening on the south side of the city.
I went to sleep knowing that the next day we would be doing some major sight seeing and I would be taking Paula to her first American League baseball game.
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