John G. Shedd Aquarium

It was a beautiful day as we drove into downtown Chicago. I think the last time we were here was when our friend, Jason, was attending the University of Chicago back in 1996 or '97. Has it seriously been that long? We've driven through, of course, but not actually gone into Chicago again until this week.

I wanted to take the girls to see the Shedd Aquarium, and since Mike and I had never been there, it seemed like a good idea. We figured out how to get there without too much trouble and there wasn't any lines to get into the Aquarium either. The building was majestic, intricate and overwhelming. There was a dolphin show coming up so we headed there first. I was excited to see it but my initial thrill was quickly snuffed when the show was over 10min. later. After, we were all getting hungry but the food was so pricey that we could have eaten just about anywhere in Downtown GR for less. Oh well...

After a bit of grub, we started heading to the different exhibits. I was quickly saddened to see that many of the "tanks" were located at eye level for adults but for kids, they were completely useless. We kept having to pick them up or carry them on our shoulders. And the people...oh, the people. The crowd was becoming so dense that you couldn't even get to the exhibits without being pushed or shoved out of the way. It was terrible. So, we called it good and headed back to the car for our 3 hour ride home. We were very fortunate that we had ZERO traffic problems the whole weekend and we had a pleasant trip back.

I'm glad that we went but it's not something that we'll be doing again any time soon. And to make matters worse, I now find out that they jacked the prices up for the Labor Day weekend which cost us an additional $35 more than it would have normally. Gosh I hate that.

I am including some photos that I snapped while we were there and I thought that I would share them with you. Enjoy!