Pierre and decided to drive into Chicago and not take the train, that way we would not be on a time restraint. The drive into Chicago was very pleasant and we found a parking garage to park Vinn in and off we went! First stop was Bloomingdales, I wanted to buy something from there, that way if anyone ever asked me "where did you get that" I could say Bloomingdales, but the prices drove me out of there..quick.. one shirt that I fell in love with....was $400.00...hmmm.. not today! We then had lunch on the the Riverwalk and watched the Chicago Fireboat do some maneuvers!
After lunch we started walking and passed by the Navy Pier and saw the Farris Wheel.. It was super tall! After about 5 more miles we arrived at The Field Museum of National History (named after, its first major benefactor, Marshall Field) this museum a natural history museum and is one of the largest, of its kind, in the world. It is a premier Museum, because of its size and the extensive scientific specimen and artifact collections.
It's permanent exhibitions include artifacts from around the world, but one of its most
It's permanent exhibitions include artifacts from around the world, but one of its most
famous is Sue...On August 12 1990 working on a dig in South Dakota, Susan Hendrickson uncovered the remains of one of the largest, most complete, and best preserved T. rex ever found, it was named "Sue" in her honor. I was taken back at massive size of these animals, they are huge! This T-Rex is 40 feet long, stands 12 feet high at the hips, she is is 67 million years old and examination of the bones revealed that Sue died at age 28. I guess this is young for a T-Rex? I thought of the movie Jurassic Park, and could not imagine such a creature running at me...gave me chills.
They also house a collection of gems would make most swoon! Such a collection.....diamonds, ruby's, emeralds, sapphires, so many, my eyes started to sparkle! The collection of amber made me weep! We saw a Louis Comfort Tiffany stain glass window! They had so many meteorites, (some of them were quite big) fossils, as well as a anthropological collection and cultural artifacts from around the globe.
They have many animal exhibitions and dioramas, lots of Asia and Africa animals, we had an up-close look at the diverse habitats that these animals inhabit. Most notably featured are the infamous Lions of Tasvo. These lions were a pair of man-eating Tsavo lions responsible for the deaths of a number of construction workers on the Kenya-Uganda Railway in 1898. They made a movie depicting their reign of terror "The Ghost and the Darkness".
The Hall of Jade, spans 8,000 years of Chinese jade artifacts. That's a lot folks!
We saw 23 human mummies along with mummified birds and cats in the Ancient Egyptian hall, this exhibit also has a tomb with hieroglyphics that are 5,000 years old. I loved the shrine of the cat goddess Sekhmet, (she looked a lot like Navi!) along with the kinder less hostile form Bastet. A popular feature of the exhibit is the replica (with original materials) of the chapel in the tomb of Unis-Anka the son of Una s,(the last pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty).
Of course the Evolving Planet was my favorite, you walk each hall and it tells you the history and the evolution of life on Earth, from the first organism to present-day life! I loved the dinosaur hall, they had dinosaurs from every era! I was in awe at the amount of dinosaurs they had displayed in this hall. They had tons and tons (Literally) of dinosaurs!
Other exhibitions include sections on Tibet and China where you can view traditional clothing and jewelry. There is also an exhibit of how life is was in Africa and you can visit several Pacific Islands. They have a authentic 19th century Maori Meeting House, Ruatepuke II, from Tokomaru Bay, New Zealand,in order to go into the house you have to take your shoes off!
Chicago Field Museum is one of the world's great museums of science, environment, and culture, a focus of public learning and scholarly research. It is a treasury of more than 20 million objects from ancient mummies to endangered plants and animals and their collections of fossils and meteorites are world renowned, drawing researchers from around the globe to study them!
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