Chicago Part 2

Finally getting around to finishing posting about our trip to Chicago. I apologize for the delay, but I've been sick this week whch has really slowed down my productivity.

On monday after the dance competition we went with a couple of friends of ours from France (did I mention that the kids learned a little French and about France hanging out with Maxence and Emilene?) to the Shedd Aquarium. BTW, homeschoolers, if you show proof of being a homeschooler you can get the teacher discount.. which is awesome!

First we spent several minutes staring at the hypnotic Tropical reef tank:

We also noticed that at many of the exhibits there were interactive computer displays which had little games or movies to help kids understand more about the animals they are observing. this one was about frogs which have developed special adaptations to help them survive in extreme climates.

We then went to a show ,which included information on how the rescue and train animals that we see in the aquarium. Some of the animals we saw were beluga whales, white sided dolphins, and penguins. The animals were just amazing, and the kids learned some training tips (especially after talking with some of the trainers) which they plan to use on our dogs.

After seeing the show and spending like 15 minutes watching the cutest sea otters swim around we went down to an area where they had water tales, and the chance to touch live starfish. They certainly felt differently that I expected, and came in so many more varieties than I previously thought.

Emily being afraid of Jelly Fish:

This isn't a very good picture, but we got to spend some time watching a sea lion being trained up close. He was so smart, reacted to our and his trainers praise, and definitely had a distinct personality. So cool!

We were lucky to go on a day where they were open extra late ( even though apparently, not a lot of peole knew about it), so we had alot of the museum almost to ourselves. I have a really cool video of an amazonian turtle playing with me that i will try to post later.

Here is the view of the skyline as we left and walked to dinner.