Chicago, Illinois day 2

Today we are meeting our friends and hopefully surprising the girls.  We are tagging along with them on a school field trip to a behind the scenes tour of the Field Museum.  It was really the one museum I wanted to visit and the timing was right to go on a tour.  This is Sue . . .

. . . all of Sue is 'real' except for the head is a cast.  This is Sue's real head . . .

Why isn't Sue's skull with the rest of her body?
The photo above is Sue's real skull.  At 600 pounds, it is too heavy to be mounted to the structure that holds the skeleton.  So this is the real skull and a replica skull in the top photo.  I think Sue is one of the main attractions.   Nearby, are these two . . .

. . . Fighting African Elephants . . . they are the work of Carl Akeley who is considered the father of modern taxidermy.  It was nice to stand there with hardly anyone else near by!  Turn one way and see Sue  and turn around to the big elephants.  There is something cool about being at a museum early especially on a Sunday morning!  Well, I am not so sure the kids would agree with me!  We walked a lot and fast too.  Our tour guide knew her stuff . . . she walked and talked faster than any tour guide I have ever encountered.  We ended our tour in the basement where we had some hands-on fun!  Well, it was fun for some . . .

It was a fast paced tour but good.  You really could spend a full day inside the Field Museum.  After the official tour was over we went and did a few things the tour did not cover.  We were all starving so we set out for lunch at Ed Debevic's.  The girls love this place, and we were game to join the fun!

Oh my, this place was a riot and Colin loved the concept.  They were a bit rude but all in good fun.  Our waitress's name was Squirrely.  Colin loved giving her a hard time and she even said my sweater was ugly!  For some reason, Colin caught me in a giving mood . . .

Yes, that is a sprite and a very large small vanilla milk shake and all topped off with the World's Smallest Sundae . . .

. . . I am sure I will be regretting this later in the day!  Oh he did eat a hamburger in between all that sugary goodness.  That was a TON of sugar.  The weather was yucky, but we set out to walk and do a little shopping on Michigan Avenue.  The kids had three stores to visit; The American Girl Store, The Lego Store . . .

. . . I liked this Lego sign . . . it is made of solid colored mini figures!  I wonder how many it took?  Our last store was the Apple store; can you believe this was my first visit to an actual Apple Store?  Remember I still have an iPhone 3!  The adults wanted to stop at Garrett Popcorn for a snack . . .

Hail, Hail the gang's all here except Sophie is too cool for us and had to hide behind me!  You smiled and then emailed the photo to yourself.  This jokester . . .

. . . sent me 4 photos of himself!  I ordered a Garrett Mix which is caramel popcorn and cheese popcorn; I know sounds gross doesn't it.  I can promise you it was good.  I would eat a couple caramel and then a few cheese . . . it was a good sweet and savory mix.  Did I mention the rain?  Ugh it was awful and none of us had an umbrella or any real rain gear but on we went back to the hotel in a nice warm cab.  The Palmer House was so cozy and off to the indoor pool we went to chat while the kids burned some energy . . . lots of energy.  After the swim, we headed back upstairs.  The kids went to our room and I went to Marilyn's room to chat . . . everyone got along, let me type that again . . . EVERYONE got along and no kid drama . . . and we were able to enjoy hanging out and catching up.  It was an early to bed night after a long great day!