A Dino Diva's Dream

The first week of December we had plans to take the train to Chicago to visit Sue the T. Rex at the Field Museum.  The trip was postponed because Shelby was running a fever and Morgan had sore ears.  A few days later the doctor said Morgan has a double ear infection and Shelby an upper respiratory virus.  We decided to get a refund on the train tickets and try again.  Since Nate was going to be in Chicago for his annual baseball coaches convention Wednesday evening thru Sunday, I thought it would be a good time to go.  Not ideal right after the holidays and all our travel, but if we didn't go before baseball season started, who knows when we would get there.  So I bought a one way train ticket for Nate.  On Wednesday January 2nd, we woke early to get on the 7:30am train.  As we were anticipating the trains arrival, an announcement said the train was delayed in Springfield due to a break in the tracks.  New departure time was 9:00.  We finally got on the train and some where along the way we had to pull off and wait for the southbound train to pass.  We arrived in Chicago at noon instead of the scheduled 10:00.  A wait in a short line for a cab and we were off to the museum.

unfortunately looking right into the sun

 the Dino Diva with Sue

 we watched this 3D movie

Shelby loved it

I didn't enjoy all of it

 for the girl who says this is her plan some day

Sue is a T. Rex but Shelby's favorite is the Triceratops

here she is with the head of 1

 the real head of Sue

it is too heavy to be on the display so they have it in a glass box

 looking at Sue from the balcony

they still had Christmas lights and decorations up

 fun displays of dinosaurs everywhere

these are in a gift shop

 Morgan was interested in taking lots of pictures with her ipod.  She didn't care as much about the dinosaurs as Shelby.  But she did enjoy this African bus and exhibit.

The first thing we did after checking our coats and getting our tickets was find the McDonald's to get some lunch.  We had a 1/2 an hour or so before the movie to learn some facts about Sue.  There was a lovely volunteer who told us lots of stuff.  Shelby of course already knew most of it and answered many of her questions.  She video taped her with her ipod.  Shelby had read one of the books about Sue from the Oakdale library that they sell there at the museum.  We bought her a copy.  We were joking that with the delayed train we wouldn't be happy if we came all that way to eat at McDonald's and watch a movie!  It ended up being perfect timing.  We had plenty of time to check out the dinosaur stuff and beyond that, we really do not find museums all that interesting.  Before we knew it the museum was closing.  We waited in another cold, long line for a cab and said our goodbyes to Nate.  We headed to the train station and he went to his hotel.  We had to wake both girls up when the train pulled into Normal about 9:20.  Thankfully no delays on the return trip.  It is crazy to think that in 12 hours we went to Chicago and walked through a museum and then home again!  Thanks Nonny Mary for a fun family trip.