The Shedd

Chicago is littered with worthy cultural destinations, including the Museum Campus, where you can find The Adler Planetarium, The Field Museum and The Shedd Aquarium. On the first nice Sunday of the spring, Dad decided it'd be a good idea to meet our friends Michael, Alister and Audrey Johnson at the Shedd for an afternoon of aquatic adventure.
After finally giving up on trying to game Mayor Daley's parking scam, we walked to the entrance to see a gigantic line. Luckily for us, the Johnsons arrived earlier and, due to a friend's generosity, got to wait in the short line to receive free tickets. Once we were inside, we walked around looking at giant snakes, whales, fish, penguins, and more fish. We even got to dress as penguins and climb around a mock penguin enclosure and saw the whale/seal/dolphin show, before heading back to the car.
I really wanted to go to the Adler too, but Dad claimed it was closing soon. I laid off him after we discovered a nearby hidden park with a big jungle gym and other oddities, including big hills we could run and roll down. Not surprisingly, I fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Space Oddity

I may have hit all of Chicago's museums now, as I made my first visit to the Adler Planetarium to check out the recently opened Planet Explorers exhibit, which is 100% for kids. I docked a space shuttle to the space station, wore an astronaut jacket and pack, walked in space, and played with a bunch of other space themed contraptions. I also saw One World, One Sky - Big Bird's Adventure in the Definiti Space Theater, a kind of small OmniMax theater. The film stared Big Bird, Elmo, and Elmo's equally annoying Chinese counterpart, who helped Elmo- and the always dumbfounded Big Bird- understand that the stars in the sky are the same all over the world.