Sunday: Chicago - Shedd

Today was a great day.  I think I enjoyed Shedd more than MSI.

We had a nice hotel with a great view.  The view at night was pretty, but we slept through most of it.  Joshua and I read in the window seat for a little bit, but it was rather cold and so didn't last very long.

Each family was on their own for leaving: we were going to meet up at Shedd.  Although we were told to leave around 9:30.  Well.  We all pulled into the parking lot within two minutes of each other, not having followed each other.  Timing on this trip was crazy because we all had the same clocks.

We went to the Great Reef first and that was my favorite part.  I probably could have gone around the circle a second time.  I love the eels.  I really enjoy the big tank.

We also happened to be there right as they were feeding several of the tanks.  This was the neatest part of a bunch of us.  First the sting rays.  Turns out, it isn't very interesting to watch them eat.  Then a normal school of fish.  The a group of fish that SWARMED the food.  And finally, an archer fish.  I'm not sure I had ever seen an archer fish, even on TV, so when it shot the water up to get the food off a stick I was so impressed.  On the way down from the Great Reef we were all in the elevator and someone noted that there should be a square tile for each of us.  Someone else pointed out that since it was a 4x4 array there should even be an extra title.  Then, as we were all shuffling into our square, someone pointed it that it was like one of those picture puzzles that you have to move one piece at a time within a grid to form a puzzle.  So then we started moving like that.  It was excellent.

We watched a show next and we were all a bit underwhelmed.  They've changed the format of the shows to only feature a single animal and last about seven minutes.  You don't have to reserve a time or pay for them, but you also don't know what the animal will be until one minute before the show starts.  I feel like this could be handled slightly better, but we still enjoyed the sea lion and penguin shows that we saw.

Joshua found this amazing orange fish.  It was probably his favorite in the aquarium.

We also got to pet several things!  The first was a Lake Sturgeon.  To me, it felt like a clean slimy fish.  I know that's a weird description, but that's how it felt!  Joshua managed to touch one once, but was a bit scared and didn't want to put his arm in too deep.  Later Isaac and I touched some sea stars.  They were harder than I expected, but I guess that makes sense.

Last, but not least, don't forget about the penguin exhibit!  We still tell Ben his favorite animal is a penguin, whether or not it actually is.  Joshua was especially excited to see the penguins with Ben.

We finished up around 2pm.  They had a large section under construction, which was also a bit disappointing but oh well.  It meant we got home at a reasonable time, and that's sometimes nice too.  I'm still hoping to get a few more pictures (especially some group pictures), but don't have them yet.