Chicago Sightseeing, Day 2

Happy September, friends! Is it really September already? Wasn't it just New Year's? Sheesh.

Finally, let's wrap up those Chicago recaps! As you may recall, we spent our first day in Chicago doing some sightseeing, then caught a baseball game at U.S. Cellular Field, and then I told you about the game we saw at Wrigley Field. We did some more sightseeing before and after Wrigley, so let's talk about that now!

Friday morning we got ourselves up and moving (thanks to leftover doughnuts!), and started off another beautiful weather day with a morning stroll through Grant Park.

Grant Park

More Grant Park

Funny statue garden of...legs? I'm not sure. Legs, I think. No bodies or heads, though.

Handsome guy

Our first stop of the day was at the Field Museum.

The Field Museum

There, we admired Sue (the largest, most complete T-Rex skeleton in existence, I believe)...

Sue!

I'm a big ol' meanie, making fun of her tiny arms like that. It's okay, Sue, we've all been there.

...checked out lots of animal displays...

Poor bunny, about to be dinner for some giant bird babies.

There were babies in most of the displays. I'm a fan of animal babies.

Now we're talking.

...saw more skeletons...

Skulls of the Tsavo man-eating lions, responsible for the deaths of a whole bunch of construction workers who were working on a railway in Kenya in 1898

This snake is just cool. As far as I know, he didn't eat anybody.

...explored the Egyptian exhibit, which was rather cool...

Hieroglyphics on the walls of the "pyramid" that houses the exhibit

Hard to make out, but you look through this hole in the floor down at a mummy...

...this mummy, to be exact!

More mummies, sarcophagi, etc.

...and made a plastic model T-Rex friend to take home as a souvenir:

Mold-A-Rama! Now that just sounds fun.

There's our new T-Rex! He lives on one of our cabinets for now, but he will eventually move into Eric's office. Eric's office is cool like that.

We then said farewell to the Field Museum...

Parting view of the main hall

Auf Wiedersehen to you, too, Museum!

...and introduced our new friend to the great, wide world:

T-Rex says goodbye to his birthplace...

...and heads out into the world, looking somewhat Godzilla-like.

Our plan was to hit the Shedd Aquarium next, but there was quite a line out front by the time we made it over there. Since we only would have had an hour or so to spend inside anyway, we decided to scratch that plan and instead spent some time enjoying the nice weather and lovely view.

Shedd Aquarium

Pretty!

Enjoying Chicago

By that time we were getting hungry, so we stopped for lunch then hopped on the train to Wrigley Field, but we've already discussed Wrigley, so let's skip ahead to post-game!

After the game we went back to our hotel for a bit to relax. We had considered going to the Willis (Sears) Tower at that point, but decided against it - we were pretty worn out and just weren't feeling it. (Feel free to assume this decision was partly made because I didn't want to feel pressured to do the Skydeck.) So, we relaxed a bit and then went out to dinner. We went to Weber Grill, where we had a bit of seafood, steak, potatoes, and a delicious chocolate cake dessert.

Weber Grill

My handsome husband with our mound of cake

After dinner we spent some time just roaming the streets of Chicago, taking in the nighttime views.

Wrigley Building

Tribune Tower

Hanging out in front of the Wrigley Building

(FYI, no, I am not trying to do an edgy pose. I was just waiting for Eric to finish taking pictures and he caught me!)

View along the river

Happy tourists!

After taking in the city lights, we made our way back to our hotel where we packed up and called it a night. Our flight out of Chicago left at 8:00 the next morning, so we got a rather early start.

And that was our trip! We absolutely loved Chicago, and it was definitely a great way to spend our anniversary together. Thanks for a great weekend, Chicago!

Farewell, Windy City!