If you read my column last week, you’ll know that my family and I are enjoying a vacation with relatives in Chicago.
Unfortunately, yours truly, while earnestly trying to keep her children healthy during the trip, managed to come down with a nasty cold. But I guess you could say my efforts paid off because no one else got sick.
Now that I’ve been feeling better, these last few days have been very busy. My husband’s family is Polish, which means get-togethers with unhealthy, delicious food. We have also managed to get out of the house and see some sights.
Our main goal for this trip was to see Chicago’s Field Museum. It’s one of the finest natural history museums in the world. According to the Museum’s website, it came into existence as “an outgrowth of the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893.” Its purpose was the “accumulation and dissemination of knowledge, and the preservation and exhibition of objects illustrating art, archaeology, science and history.”
You can spend a week in the Field Museum and still not see everything in it. I hope that I can go back some day without little children because they did not let me read any of the signs, nor was I able to linger in my favorite places. We still had a great time, though, and my kids loved it.
There’s a huge section of the World’s animals. What is on display are real animals that have died and been stuffed, which, I thought, I wasn’t going to like. But I don’t think there’s any other place I could go to see animals, up close and personal. Nor could any zoo possibly offer the variety of species. I watch a lot of nature shows, but I still saw animals that I have never seen before. The displays went on and on, and it affirmed my belief that our world is an amazing place.
We saw one special exhibit that was a big hit with my kids. It was called “Underground Adventure,” and it allowed us to travel under the earth as if we were the size of a small bug and see what it would see. It was not a pretty display. For little boys, it was perfect. Next time my boys are dumping dirt on each other’s heads, I’ll ask them if they remember what’s living underneath their feet.
One of the most popular parts of the museum is the dinosaur hall. It houses several full-scale dinosaur fossils. The most popular dinosaur fossil is “Sue,” so she sits in the museum’s main hall. She’s the world’s most complete T-Rex, and the museum paid a handsome price to get her. I found it interesting that her skull actually sits upstairs and there’s a replica on her body downstairs because the real one would be too heavy to keep there.
My husband was enamored by “Inside Ancient Egypt,” where the museum has over 20 mummies and many other artifacts. It’s a big interest of his since he teaches Ancient Egypt in his world history class. Like I said, there will be plenty for us to see and study, if we can come back some day.
My mother-in-law got us free tickets to the Brookfield Zoo, so we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go there. This was one humongous zoo. We were there for four hours and saw only half of it, and we didn’t see any of their special exhibits either. It’s an exaggeration to say I have never walked so much in my life, but it sure felt like it.
Our favorite part of the zoo was Tropics World, where the primates live.
They have done an amazing job of creating tropical rain forests with tall trees, rain and waterfalls.
The chimps and gorillas didn’t seem to mind their man-made habitats.
The Brookfield Zoo, which was opened in 1934, has quite a history. My favorite story is the one where in 1996 a small child fell into the exhibit I mentioned above and became unconscious. To the amazement of the whole world, a female gorilla picked him up and held him safely until some people could come retrieve him, and then she willingly handed him over. If that doesn’t pull at a mother’s heartstrings, I don’t know what does.
By the time you read this, hopefully we’ll be safely at home again. We’ve had a nice reprieve from “our real world,” but I’m looking forward to getting back to our giant pumpkin vines, regular routine, friends and a lonely cat.
Shelli Bond Pabis is a Winder resident and columnist for the Barrow Journal. You can reach her at writetospabis@gmail.com.
