Friday (Final Day):

Today wasn’t quite as exciting as the other days, which, I guess, can be a good thing.  J  At this point, we were getting tired of walking, tired of traveling back-and-forth on the highway, some of us were coming down with colds, and we just wanted to go home.  But, Norman still had class to attend today… so we had to check out of our hotel room and find somewhere to go.

There were actually a few places that we still wanted to see, but since Norman thought he’d be done early today, I told the boys to chose only one.  I gave them the choices of the Shedd Aquarium and The Field Museum, which were right next to each other alongside the lake. 

The Field Museum has Sue, the largest, most complete T. rex ever found.  We had studied about her in our homeschooling, so it would’ve been fun to see that exhibit.  But, the boys finally decided to go to the aquarium instead.

We weren’t supposed to use flash photography inside, so that kind of limited us on taking pictures.  Below is one I took of a black stingray with white splotches on its back.  Samuel liked it because one of the splotches made a perfect “S”.

We quickly went around, looking into each tank.  If we found something that was particularly interesting or unusual, we would linger a little longer… such as at the Jellyfish’s tank.  These were awesome!

When we entered the cafeteria, the boys said that they were hungry and wanted to get a meal.  At first, it sounded like a good idea.  But while they were trying to decide what to get, it occurred to me that we had only been at the aquarium for a little over an hour and we would have to be leaving before too long to pick up Norman… and I couldn’t see spending $48 just to sit in a cafeteria!  So, I let the boys pick out something small to snack on and then we moved on.

We finished looking at everything upstairs and then we went down to the Wild Reef section.  Of course, sharks are always exciting!

And, the different types of coral are beautiful!

The Oceanarium section was closed for renovation, so we went on to the gift store and purchased a few items before leaving.

When we arrived back at the Sharp building, Norman came out and informed us that his class wouldn’t be done until around 5:00 afterall.  We were a little disappointed since we could’ve gone to The Field Museum in the afternoon.

But, the more I thought about it, the more I was glad that we came back.  Rush hour traffic would’ve been crazy later on since it was a Friday.  It would’ve cost us quite a bit to see yet another museum.  Plus, it would’ve been more walking and rushing about, trying to see everything. 

Instead, the boys and I enjoyed a leisurely lunch at Arby’s and then I gave them $5 apiece to spend at the Dollar Tree.  They thought this was great!  J

Finally, we were headed back home.  We didn’t stop for supper until we got to Iowa City.  There, we ate at a Steak ‘n Shake.  YUM!!!  We don’t have any in our area, so our family always considers it a special treat to eat at one.

Oh yeah, before I forget... Norman ended up passing his test and received his Certification of Achievement.

After all, that is why we got to go to Chicago!  J

~Connie~