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Museum-a-thon 2007
Aug. 27th, 2007 11:10 pmOy. I think I've been spending at least eleven hours a day on my feet... but it's my brain that's starting to hurt.
On Saturday, I joined Helen and Brett for a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry - aka the grand repository for all the stuff too big to fit anywhere else in Chicago. One room has five aircraft hanging from the ceiling, including a Boeing 727... and a chamber under the front lawn has a complete German U-boat, captured in 1944. We arrived two minutes after they opened for the day, and left at closing time, eight hours later. I think we read, watched, steered and climbed through everything that's currently on show - a long day, but a good one.
Sunday was a Museum-free day, but not a walking-free one. Starting south of the Loop, I walked up North Michigan Avenue in search of some new trail shoes (I'm starting to wear through the bottom of the old ones), and kept going until I reached Ohio St beach. After spending the day on my feet, I found a comfy spot to sit on the shore of Lake Michigan until skyscrapers cast long shadows that darkened the sand. It's a nice spot, but I still think it's strange to find a beach that doesn't smell like the ocean...
Still gravitating towards tourist attractions like a moth fluttering around a candle flame (actually, I had a ticket that needed using in my CityPass booklet), I headed up the Hancock Building to set up a camera on the 94th floor. Pictures will have to wait until I'm back in Melbourne, as I have neither cable nor card reader with me. I did manage to get some nice shots of the beach I'd just left, and I finally put my tripod to use for some long exposure shots of the streetscape after sunset.
Today's adventure was a trip to the Shedd Aquarium. Not something I would normally have visited if the CityPass didn't have tickets to it, as I usually associate aquariums with the "Sea World" popcorn-and-trained-animals imagery. Shedd was something completely different, and by far my favourite site in the week of museums.
While they had a deep water pool for the dolphins, my favourite exhibits were the Amazon ecosystems - complex displays of river life from throughout the monsoon cycle. Conveniently, the reptiles tended to come out while I watched them, perhaps because I timed my arrival to avoid the small children banging on the glass... For a few moments today, I stood as still as the caimans while crowds of visitors surged between us. Fortunately, the dolphin shows drew away the family groups - leaving me alone to enjoy the rainforest.
When I reincarnate, I want to be a turtle. A really big one.
Next up: back to the airport tomorrow morning, and then on to Toronto.
On Saturday, I joined Helen and Brett for a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry - aka the grand repository for all the stuff too big to fit anywhere else in Chicago. One room has five aircraft hanging from the ceiling, including a Boeing 727... and a chamber under the front lawn has a complete German U-boat, captured in 1944. We arrived two minutes after they opened for the day, and left at closing time, eight hours later. I think we read, watched, steered and climbed through everything that's currently on show - a long day, but a good one.
Sunday was a Museum-free day, but not a walking-free one. Starting south of the Loop, I walked up North Michigan Avenue in search of some new trail shoes (I'm starting to wear through the bottom of the old ones), and kept going until I reached Ohio St beach. After spending the day on my feet, I found a comfy spot to sit on the shore of Lake Michigan until skyscrapers cast long shadows that darkened the sand. It's a nice spot, but I still think it's strange to find a beach that doesn't smell like the ocean...
Still gravitating towards tourist attractions like a moth fluttering around a candle flame (actually, I had a ticket that needed using in my CityPass booklet), I headed up the Hancock Building to set up a camera on the 94th floor. Pictures will have to wait until I'm back in Melbourne, as I have neither cable nor card reader with me. I did manage to get some nice shots of the beach I'd just left, and I finally put my tripod to use for some long exposure shots of the streetscape after sunset.
Today's adventure was a trip to the Shedd Aquarium. Not something I would normally have visited if the CityPass didn't have tickets to it, as I usually associate aquariums with the "Sea World" popcorn-and-trained-animals imagery. Shedd was something completely different, and by far my favourite site in the week of museums.
While they had a deep water pool for the dolphins, my favourite exhibits were the Amazon ecosystems - complex displays of river life from throughout the monsoon cycle. Conveniently, the reptiles tended to come out while I watched them, perhaps because I timed my arrival to avoid the small children banging on the glass... For a few moments today, I stood as still as the caimans while crowds of visitors surged between us. Fortunately, the dolphin shows drew away the family groups - leaving me alone to enjoy the rainforest.
When I reincarnate, I want to be a turtle. A really big one.
Next up: back to the airport tomorrow morning, and then on to Toronto.
