stingrays and dinos, oh my

On a quick morning trip to Chicago, we managed to hit two places of interest. First, we stopped by the aquarium (making EXCELLENT use of this year's membership!) to check out the Stingray Touch exhibit, which is outdoors and thus only open in the summer. It's basically a big, shallow pool under a tent, and the stingrays swim around, and you can reach in and pat them on the back as they swim by. Or, in Liam's case, you can pat them on the back for extended periods of time because they come over to you and just hover there (seriously, it was amazing -- he was like some kind of stingray whisperer or something). They feel about how you would imagine, sort of slimy and squishy and slightly bumpy. It was relatively uncrowded (we hit the Sunday morning sweet spot), and watching the stingrays go round and round was peaceful, almost mesmerizing. The boys were definitely in love, so much so that they were completely out of joint with us when we made them leave after a full 45 minutes of petting stingrays (they even got to watch them eat, which sparked a swimming frenzy that was kind of exciting).

After we finally managed to pry the boys away from the stingrays, they reluctantly accompanied us next door to the Field Museum. And where the aquarium was uncrowded, the Field was basically a ghost town. It was cool inside, and there was plenty of room to roam, and as soon as we saw Sue the dinosaur in the main gallery, the boys quickly got into the swing of things. They were impressed by the hall of rocks and gems (check them out on the space rock!) and with a history of the world exhibit that walked them through our planet's (many) mass extinctions, but the real stars, of course, were the dinosaurs. Max in particular was deeply interested and asking lots of questions, and he and Mike took off for a while for some in-depth exploration, while I supervised Liam and Henry exploring at a more frantic pace. We were there for quite a long time (for us), not leaving until our growling stomachs forced us out the door and in search of some food on the way home. The boys are excited to go back sometime soon -- and since we got in for free on a reciprocal membership, I think it's safe to say it will happen sooner rather than later!