Chicago's Shedd Aquarium

This post is for all of you to enjoy, but it's especially for MICAELA, who loves all things dolphins!

While Brent and I were in Chicago for our first anniversary, we knew we would visit the Shedd Aquarium. We walked there from our hotel the last morning (we were covered in sweat by the end -it was a HIGH humidity weekend!) and spent quite a bit of time there before heading home on the train. After drying off a bit, it was fun to discover what a great place it is! I'm excited to go back again someday, and especially excited to take Micaela there someday!

There are a ton of pictures here so you can see all the ins and outs of the place, but I'll only highlight a few. Like this one of an anaconda... Yuk!

Shiny little blue fish. They glowed!

Please excuse the glare that you'll often see in pictures. Around the top of each tank was a neon sign which was cool, but not great for photos.

Okay. You gotta check this out. Except you might not want to. If you can click on the picture below and see it enlarged, check out the eyes on these eels. YUK! They're SOOOOOOO creepy! There were these two gross eels (one is hiding back in that hole) that were really light in color, and then they had these beady, blue eyes that just stared at us. They even seemed to follow us around the room. Ewwwww!!! I still get shivers thinking about them. So I had to share with you. Maybe that'll make my shivers go away, or just pass on to you. Enjoy! :)

I made sure to include a person in this picture so you can get the perspective of just how large this crab is. Wow!

Can you see who's hiding in here? Nemo!

Check out the HUGE turtle on the ramp.

Every fish in his tank had this strange bump on the head. Maybe they kept running into each other?

Check out these fish! I think they were called "pencil fish", but now I can't remember and I'm too lazy to look it up at the moment. I'm just trying to get this post published!

The dolphins! Finally, right Micaela?!

Sorry it's so hard to see these. The lighting really made it tough. This pair kept swimming around together, which was pretty fun.

This little fella kept following me around with his eyes. It was pretty cute!

Awwww....... So cute!

I love the bright colors you can find in nature!

Do you see the little frog? He was pretty tiny!

Can you see the chameleon? He's hiding!

There's our trip to the Shedd Aquarium! Did you have as much fun as we did?

I also have three videos, but those don't seem to be processing for me tonight. I often seem to have problems with that. Hmmm.... Micaela, I'll just show you this weekend while you're here, and the rest of you? Well, you should just come visit and I'll show you, too! :)

The Art Institute of Chicago

When we arrived in Chicago, one of the very first things we did was head to the Art Institute of Chicago. It was a beautiful building from the outside,
...and from the inside! There was the older-style museum, and they've recently added a modern wing. I'm guessing you can tell which is which.
I'm so glad I took this shot in black and white. I feel like it could be a picture in their advertisement!

Next you'll see just a few of the beautiful and interesting pieces they have at the museum. I'm guessing you'll recognize some of them.













Can you name any of the artists? I snapped a close-up picture of the description of each item, so I could let you know if you really want the information.

One unique thing they had was a miniature display. Here are two images of all these miniature little boxes you could look through and see rooms with HUGE amounts of detail! It's hard to tell from the pictures (and the reflections) just what was in each room and what size they really were, but they were really amazing!

A statue I was drawn to in the sculpture area.

There you have it! Now you can feel like you were at the Art Institute of Chicago with us!