Tag: museum

*sniff* My Chicago Trip is nearly at an end…

Before I get too far into my post, a quick HAPPY BIRTHDAY to drake57!

So, yesterday (well, I haven’t been to bed yet, so I’m still thinking today is Sunday) after our nap and a bit of geeking we headed off toward Navy Pier. We popped into a couple of bookstores (Borders and a used bookstore) so that I could look for more Lois McMaster Bujold books – no go on the ones I’m looking for.

We arrived at the movie theater right when the 5:00 showing of Wall*E was beginning, but we wanted a bit of a rest from the walking we’d been doing. (No, we didn’t walk all the way from judiang‘s place – just from the Borders.) So we had drinks and some spinach & artichoke dip at the lounge were the bowling alley is. (This bowling alley’s in the same building as the theater – and the lanes are on the second floor. Seems such an odd place to put a bowling alley.) Dad called while we were lounging, so I talked a bit with him and mom. (They’re in Minnesota visiting Amy & Rachel. Like me, they go home tomorrow – Monday.)

A few minutes before the movie, we finally made our way to the theater to discover lots of people were going to see it too. We wound up in the center of the very front row. And it was actually a great place to watch the movie. We both loved it and the cartoon before it. And we saw several trailers that we enjoyed. Though I think I’ll be giving Beverly Hills Chihuahua and The Pink Panther 2 a miss.

After the movie, we continued our walk to Navy Pier. We first put our names in at Bubba Gump’s, but it was an hour waiting. So we walked on down the pier and decided to try the barbecue place, Joe’s Be-bop Cafe. They had a 5 minute wait, so Judi left to cancel our name at Bubba’s and we were seated at Be-Bop’s. We decided to take our time eating in order to sit most of the night before the fireworks, then get up to watch ’em. We timed it perfectly (with some thanks to the waiter who took forever to get our desserts to us).

So, for starters we got popcorn shrimp (since we missed out on the bucket o’ shrimp thingy from Bubba’s). Tasty, tasty! Then Judi got the rib tips and I got the half yardbird (bbq chicken). Although their barbecue sauce was better than Robinson’s (which I sampled at Taste), it still wasn’t to my liking. Still, the rub & sauce on the bird (what little there was) was excellent. I liked their jalapeño corn bread, their spicy baked beans, and the baked tater too. I also had an amaretto sour there. Judi and I both agreed that it was better than the one I’d had at the bowling alley lounge. Dessert was “sumpin’ chocolate” which was basically chocolate overload cake with chocolate ice cream and hot fudge. Wow. I wasn’t able to finish the thang.

We paid for the meal and then Judi led the way to a good spot for fireworks watching. Although it was only a 10 minute show, it was really cool to watch. They even had smiley face fireworks! I hadn’t seen those in years! (First time I ever saw them was at St Paul, MN during Taste of Minnesota.) We all ooohed & ahhhhed as we watched.

My phone tries to take a video of the fireworks… Not bad, phone!

After a return to Be-bops where I looked for a souvenir for Taylor (my cousin who’s looking in on my kitties while I’m away), we headed off for the 29 bus to take us back to Judi’s place. We managed to get on the third bus and even got to sit for the entire journey. Then we watched the series finale of Doctor Who. Judi’s already posted her WTF. I rather enjoyed it myself. (Hmmm, reminds me of last year’s finale.)

We both slept in today and were ready by 10:30 to head for Chinatown. Yes, it was our traditional jaunt for a dim sum brunch. We went to new Three Happiness (as always) and had a nice assortment of dim sum. We even had leftovers (see, we needed that third person, elsaf!) We also went to a store in Chinatown so that I could get Taylor’s souvenir. (I didn’t care for the Be-bop choices the night before.)

After we returned home, it was swim time! I took my final swim in Judi’s pool, and as always, it was refreshing. And I had finally talked Judi into taking me to the Field Museum (though I had resolved to go on my own if she didn’t really want to come – it’s across the street fer gosh sakes!) I printed off $5 off coupons so we’d save some money going to the Mythical Creatures Exhibit. But it turns out I didn’t need it cuz the lady at the front desk let me in free (paying only $8 for the exhibit) since I’m a school teacher. Judi got a discount as a Chicago native, but she had to pay $15. Heh.

Since there were only 2 more hours before they closed, we went right to the Mythical Creatures Exhibit. capriuni, we both thought of how much you’d enjoy that exhibit. 🙂 It was cool – some neat art, cool statues, a Chinese dragon as used in New Years parades, etc. No photos allowed, alas. Then we went to the George Washington Carver exhibit where we were both inspired by Carver and all that he did. I learned a lot from the exhibit – he was green long before it was the buzzword of the decade.

Leaving the Carver exhibit put us right in with the prehistoric beasties. Yay! I was able to take photos there of various skeletons. I’ve always been fascinated by mammoths and saber tooths and other such critters (why else would I waste my money on 10,000 BC?) We finished off the visit with some overhead shots of Sue, the T-Rex which I remember from when I was a kid and visiting the museum. (She’s shrunk since then, I swear!)



After we left the museum, we walked over to the ugly Torso & Legs Sculpture at the tip of Grant Park near Judi’s apartment. I took photos. (I’m really pleased with my phone’s performance as a camera this trip. Not too shabby at all!) The sculpture(s) is called Agora. There are 106 cast iron figures. And they’re ugly and creepy and rusting all over the concrete.


I made Judi come with me for ice cream at Marble Slab (me thinks she doth not protest enough) and we both got cones. I had white birthday cake ice cream and double chocolate ice cream in a waffle cone. Yummy! We returned so that Judi could walk the pooch and we could veg a bit. Then we headed off to Gioco (a nearby Italian restaurant) for supper.

For starters, we had fried calamari. Yum! Then I had the pear and pancetta salad plus a side of polenta. Mmmm, best polenta ever – it was seasoned with mascarpone cheese and butter. It looked like a big pile of scrambled eggs, but tasted far better. Thanks to all of the bread and olive oil I’d already scarfed, I could only eat half. Judi happily ate the other half. Heh. Oh, and I had an amaretto sour there as well.

We waddled back and popped up to the penthouse to look over Judi’s fair city. Such a lovely view. Then we returned to make strawberry shortcake and watch the Confidential for the last ep of Doctor Who. We then watched Housewife, 49 while we ate our shortcake. It was a nice little movie. (I knew I’d like it – it had Stephanie Cole in it, after all.) I’ve pretty much been writing this post ever since. And I should head for bed. Tomorrow, *sniff* I leave. This trip has not gone completely as we’d originally envisioned, but I do think that Judi and Elsa and I had many pleasant times during it. Here’s to the next time when we three shall meet again. 🙂

A Sciency Weekend!

After last weekend’s Food Fest, I’ve been feeding my brain this weekend.

On Wednesday, I watched the National Geographic Channel for 2 hours. I really should do more of that since I enjoy science documentaries, but usually when I plonk down in front of the set, I watch my DVDs instead. (Yes, some of the DVDs are science documentaries, too.) I was watching the network because we had to write a critical review on either a television program or Internet blog for my Masters class on Informal Science Learning. I decided to do the TV show for a change of pace. (I read Internet stuff daily.)

Thursday evening, the National Museum of the US Air Force (formerly Wright Patterson Air Force Base Museum) was having the first Educator’s Night in years (since the museum began, according to one lady who welcomed us to the event). I signed up for it when I first read about it, especially since I knew we had the following day off and figured I could be out “late” at night that Thursday.

The museum usually closes at 5pm, but they stayed opening that evening and at 5:30 we were allowed to look through the museum, collect a large variety of free educational resources (mostly science, math and social studies), and watch several on-going demonstrations on different components of flight (fluid dynamics, microgravity, radios, density, etc.) I grabbed every freebie that I could (except for a packet on social studies) and watched a microgravity demo. At 6pm, they had a free showing of the IMAX movie Roving Mars. I watched that and sat pretty much dead center in the theater. That was neat!

Supper was available from 6-8pm, so after the 45 minute movie, I headed to the cafe for sandwich fixin’s, chips and cookies. I love a free meal! I watched other educators around me – most were in groups and not all of them were science and math teachers. (I wondered if the English teachers were bored, if any of them came.) I didn’t see any of my coworkers, so I’m guessing I was the only freeloader from Newton. Heh.

After supper, they showed another IMAX movie Deep Sea. This was even more visually stunning than the Mars one. There were some really weird sea creatures there which was cool to see. They had a bit of a preachy moment near the end when they talked about the danger that the reefs are in (boy are they ever!) but it wasn’t too cloying to turn people off of being good stewards of the earth.

Although the museum was open until 9pm, I was mostly ready to go after the second movie. I went around to see other demonstrations – there were some neat ones going on. And I avoided the movie-ride they have there, Morphis. It looked like the type of virtual ride that makes me ill. When I was in the gift shop area, I bought a couple of physics toys (of course). And then it was time to go home.

Another assignment that I have for my Informal Science Learning class is to do a case study of a science museum. Since I had Friday off, I asked dad if he wanted to join me on a trip to Boonshoft Museum of Discovery. (Mom worked, or I’d’ve had her along as well.) Boonshoft isn’t completely a science museum, but it’s not far away and I figured I’d have some science displays I could check out.

The place was loaded with kids. We weren’t the only school that was out that day (basically any school with an OEA associated union was out Friday but went to school Monday) though there were a couple of school buses there. The main section of the museum is a really neat play area. Most of the kids were playing there rather than looking at displays and learning science. Go figure. 🙂

Dad and I had a nice time that day and even learned something. Neither of us were aware that the coyote was not an Ohio native. Farmers in the area have been having coyote troubles for years, but the coyote only arrived in Ohio in the early 1900s. So there ya go.

We book ended our day out with food. Lunch was at Indian’s Pizza (where we both had leftovers – yum!) and we stopped at Kroger’s on the way back for some sushi. There’s a newly built Kroger’s in Englewood which has a wonderfully upscale deli and a sushi bar, so we stopped there. They have wine tasting (25 cents a taste or $1 for a flight of 5 different wines) which father partook of. He liked the one he tasted enough to get a bottle. They also had cheeses to sample and we both found one we liked and bought that too. In the deli, you can sample the various items and so I sampled some curried cous cous, which I liked, and some Baba Ghanoush, which I liked even more and so bought some. We bought our sushi & other items and returned home.

Today I’m working on my science classes and I have finished my paper for the Critical Reflection of a Television Program. I have copied the paper into my science blog, so if any of you are interested, you can check it out. If you’d looked at the blog back when I first posted about it, you’ll notice it looks different now. I found another theme that I like and I think I prefer it to the other one. Alas, it means I no longer have hergrace and judiang on the blog! But I think I’ll probably use that photo for a future post when I write about optical illusions. In addition to changing the theme, I have made it so that people can actually comment to posts. So give it a try, comment away! (I can moderate the comments though, bwa ha ha ha!)

The Wizard of Menlo Park

“Old Thomas Edison mixing up the medicine
Messing up time from Accrington to Amazon”

OK, this Chumbawamba song followed me all around Greenfield Village today. elsaf and I picked up judiang from the airport this morning and we drove straight to The Henry Ford Experience. We spent the first part of the day at Greenfield Village and the Menlo Park recreation. I saw this when I was a kid, and Edison’s labs still amazed me today. I understood the science a lot better, too. 🙂 (And yes, Judi, I will explain the difference between AC and DC to you whenever you’re ready.)

After a display of the first phonograph (tin foil recording!) we then moved on to the Henry Ford Museum. Lots of neat stuff there, too. And I bought far too much stuff in the gift store. Including a great book of science poetry.

We stopped at Elsa’s brother’s place afterwards to pick up the doggies and see the new place. Neat house! And Ardath’s bedroom is painted phenomenally. 🙂

When we got back, it was a little late, but Elsa got in the kitchen and slaved away to make us a wonderful supper of Thai duck soup (with actual duck!) and grilled chicken salad with mango and other yummy things. I got the fire started in Elsa’s chiminea and so we had a lovely glow & warmth while we ate outside.

Now we’re inside reading LJ and getting angry about the state of things in NOLA and surround areas. Those poor people. Such incompetence in government. And now we find that Renquist is dead. Bleh. Sad times ahead for our country.

But for now, I’m with my two bestest friends in the whole wide world and having a great time. When shitty things happen, you just appreciate your friends and the good things that go on in your life.