Looks like that was it with the social life for the moment. Now I have some spare time to go back to the stuff I wanted to write for a while. Today, we go back to the zoo and to the aquarium.
With my in-laws, I wanted to do some real sight seeing. I think P was in Europe, earning some money. One day we decided to go to the zoo. It was one of the last days at school for the girls, so it must be the last week of June. The kids had school till noon. So when they came home and we had lunch and everything, it was already quite late. We decided to go to the Lincoln Zoo in Chicago. There is a bigger zoo in IL and they are both same distance, but I thought we can go to the city afterwards to eat something and the other zoo seemed too big, we would just get lost and end up seeing nothing. That was my idea at least. 10 minutes after we left, around 2.30pm, we ended up in a traffic jam. I felt kind of bad, but the mood in the car was good, it was still a fun drive. We arrived there 1 hour before the closing time, the indoor exhibitions were already closed. It was still fun and worth.
A little touristic information about the zoo: it is small, in the middle of the city close by the lake. It is surrounded with parks, you don't know where the park ends, where the zoo begins. It is for free but parking is obviously not - ouch. Still, she animals have pretty specious places. For the bear, you have to wait and hope that the animals walk by to see them. It is so weird to look at this very real looking piece of nature while you see apartment buildings in the background. The bear and the wolves were very nice to see. I don't remember what for other animals we saw, but we had a nice time.
We left the zoo around 6 pm. I decided to look for a restaurant in the neighborhood that I read about in my travel guide. We drove by the restaurant and didn't even stop, it didn't look inviting - maybe it wasn't even open. We looked around to see other places without success. It was quite crowded on the streets. We ended up in another traffic jam. Guess what, the local baseball team had a game and we were on the street leading to the stadium. We were stuck! Finally we could get on a side street. We ended up eating in a Japanese restaurant in Evanston, a perfect place to be with the kids. Unfortunately I don't remember what it was called. Sorry, no free advertisement this time.
Now the aquarium: The Shedd Aquarium. On the Internet it says 'Largest indoor aquarium in the world, with more than 8000 aquatic animals'. We went there after the summer school was out, so we had the whole day. We took the train to the city and when we arrived, there was a bus leaving for the aquarium. When we arrived, we had top walk along the shore to get to the aquarium. We watched the sail boats coming and going.
The aquarium is in a very beautiful building right on the lake shore. I have to put a picture of it.
With my in-laws, I wanted to do some real sight seeing. I think P was in Europe, earning some money. One day we decided to go to the zoo. It was one of the last days at school for the girls, so it must be the last week of June. The kids had school till noon. So when they came home and we had lunch and everything, it was already quite late. We decided to go to the Lincoln Zoo in Chicago. There is a bigger zoo in IL and they are both same distance, but I thought we can go to the city afterwards to eat something and the other zoo seemed too big, we would just get lost and end up seeing nothing. That was my idea at least. 10 minutes after we left, around 2.30pm, we ended up in a traffic jam. I felt kind of bad, but the mood in the car was good, it was still a fun drive. We arrived there 1 hour before the closing time, the indoor exhibitions were already closed. It was still fun and worth.
A little touristic information about the zoo: it is small, in the middle of the city close by the lake. It is surrounded with parks, you don't know where the park ends, where the zoo begins. It is for free but parking is obviously not - ouch. Still, she animals have pretty specious places. For the bear, you have to wait and hope that the animals walk by to see them. It is so weird to look at this very real looking piece of nature while you see apartment buildings in the background. The bear and the wolves were very nice to see. I don't remember what for other animals we saw, but we had a nice time.
We left the zoo around 6 pm. I decided to look for a restaurant in the neighborhood that I read about in my travel guide. We drove by the restaurant and didn't even stop, it didn't look inviting - maybe it wasn't even open. We looked around to see other places without success. It was quite crowded on the streets. We ended up in another traffic jam. Guess what, the local baseball team had a game and we were on the street leading to the stadium. We were stuck! Finally we could get on a side street. We ended up eating in a Japanese restaurant in Evanston, a perfect place to be with the kids. Unfortunately I don't remember what it was called. Sorry, no free advertisement this time.
Now the aquarium: The Shedd Aquarium. On the Internet it says 'Largest indoor aquarium in the world, with more than 8000 aquatic animals'. We went there after the summer school was out, so we had the whole day. We took the train to the city and when we arrived, there was a bus leaving for the aquarium. When we arrived, we had top walk along the shore to get to the aquarium. We watched the sail boats coming and going.
The aquarium is in a very beautiful building right on the lake shore. I have to put a picture of it.
(source: http://www.dam.brown.edu/people/glin/Chicago_Postcards/shedd-aquarium.jpg). The whole shore side is glass and you get the feeling that the aquarium and the lake are one.
We started with the dolphins. I have to say that the show was not so much fun for the kids. It was a lot of talking - of course about the climate change, how do we save our planet kind of stuff - and not too much action. It was very 'animal friendly', the dolphins were showing their daily routine to stay fit. Then we went to the wild reef. That was amazing: sharks, stingrays, all kinds of fish swimming around in the huge water tanks. Nemo's and Dori's were very exciting for the kids. A was very interested in the stingrays. You could actually walk on the tank full of stingrays, it had a see-through floor. A insisted that a stingray bit her nose. I had to drag her to the clown fish, otherwise she would still be there looking for her nose.
The Caribbean reef was another amazing exhibit. There was a real diver swimming around and showing what kind of interesting things the fish can do. There was a fish collecting stones. The guy brought the stones away and signed us to wait for 3 minutes. And yes, 3 minutes later, the stones were back to their places.
Besides the fish, there were some more animals, I think from the Amazon area. There was a real anaconda, giant ants and roaches from the rain forest. Well, I am glad I didn't become a biologist going to the Amazon for some kind of research and I have all the respect for the people doing that! We saw more and I cannot write it all down, it is impossible. We spent hours and we didn't get to see it all. It was the best aquarium I saw. Chapeau for the Americans.
We left the aquarium way later than planned and decided to walk to the station. On our way, I saw the Italian restaurant our neighbors mentioned when they heard we were going to the city: The Italian Village. It is OK with the kids and the food was good, only we were quite tired to enjoy it fully. The Italian Village gets its free ad from me.
Bye for now.
The Caribbean reef was another amazing exhibit. There was a real diver swimming around and showing what kind of interesting things the fish can do. There was a fish collecting stones. The guy brought the stones away and signed us to wait for 3 minutes. And yes, 3 minutes later, the stones were back to their places.
Besides the fish, there were some more animals, I think from the Amazon area. There was a real anaconda, giant ants and roaches from the rain forest. Well, I am glad I didn't become a biologist going to the Amazon for some kind of research and I have all the respect for the people doing that! We saw more and I cannot write it all down, it is impossible. We spent hours and we didn't get to see it all. It was the best aquarium I saw. Chapeau for the Americans.
We left the aquarium way later than planned and decided to walk to the station. On our way, I saw the Italian restaurant our neighbors mentioned when they heard we were going to the city: The Italian Village. It is OK with the kids and the food was good, only we were quite tired to enjoy it fully. The Italian Village gets its free ad from me.
Bye for now.
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