We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open." ~ Jawaharlal Nehru

Friday, April 22, 2011

Spring Break . . . Chicago Style! Part Two :)

A vacation is like love - anticipated with pleasure, experienced with discomfort, and remembered with nostalgia.  ~Author Unknown

 Sorry that it took me so long to post . . . all part of this crazy adventure we call life! :) For day two of our Chicago adventure we started off by heading to the Field Museum . . . which is AMAZING! If you are ever in Chicago, this is a must see ! I love museums and how much history is in there just waiting for us to discover!

There was two things that we really wanted to see while we were there: Ancient Egypt and Ancient Americas. I just happen to be in love with Ancient Egypt and all of the history involved in it . . . I fell in love in the sixth grade, sitting in Mrs. Krigle's history class. All of the stories about the Pharaohs and mummies and their gods, I just couldn't get enough of them. In fact, I remember one day in class I was so engrossed in what we were talking about that I didn't even realize that I had gotten a bloody nose! I had had a cold and the dry air in the classroom caused my nose to start bleeding . . . the girl who sat in front of me quickly got the Kleenex box and proceeded to empty the whole box into my hand to help me stop the bleeding! :) Ahhh, good times, good time!

Roland on the other hand was super excited to see all of the stuff in the Ancient Americas exhibit . . . it was kind of fun watching him look through all of the displays . . . some was from where he served his mission in Peru, and he pointed out all of the different places they came from and where we are going to visit someday when we go to Peru! :) He loved looking at all of the Native American clothing and pottery, because he grew up near Indian reservations and knew better than I exactly where they were from! I have to admit, it was a lot of fun! :)

We also checked out Sue. She is the larges and most complete T. Rex around! :) I knew that the dinosaurs were big, but seriously, it is a little awe striking and scary to see this huge skeleton, knowing that it once walked the Earth.

Something also really fun we did was the Underground Adventure! We were shrunk down to about a 1/2 inch tall and explored what is under our feet . . . yep, that's right, all of the creepy crawlies that I try to stay away from, we hung out with them! :) Here are some interesting and fun facts that we learned from the exhibit (yes, I got this off the website, but it was also in the display!)
  • Without soil, there would be no jeans.
    That's right! Jeans are made of cotton denim stitched together with cotton thread. Their blue color comes from indigo dye. Cotton and indigo come from plants that need soil to grow.
  • Without soil, we would have no aluminum cans.
    Aluminum starts out locked inside the soil, in an ore called bauxite. Aluminum can also be recycled to make new aluminum products, like cooking pots, airplanes, or new cans.
  • Without soil, we'd have no penicillin.
    Penicillin is a natural bacteria-killer that's made by a mold that grows in soil. Thousands of lives are saved each year by penicillin and other medicines that were discovered in soil organisms.
  • Without soil, we couldn't even eat breakfast!
    Everything from the wheat in cereal to the oranges in orange juice to the animal proteins in milk, bacon, and eggs were nourished by the soil and what grows in it. Even a ceramic plate is made of a type of soil. No soil, no breakfast and no plates from which to eat.
After our fun adventure at the Field Museum, we were pretty hungry so we headed over to a little restaurant that I had found that I thought that Roland might enjoy eating at: The Taste of Peru Restaurant! I thought that the food was AMAZING, but Roland took one bite and started drooling in Spanish again! (To clear up the confusion, to drool in Spanish is to go on and on and on and on about how good the food is while making facial expressions and slight moans to display just how big the fiesta is in your mouth . . . oh yeah and this is all expressed in Spanish instead of English . . . yep, that pretty much covers it!) :) He sat there and talked in Spanish to the guy who waited on us about Peru and their food! I think that he was pretty much in heaven! :) I didn't mind too much, after all I got yummy food out of it and to see what my sweetheart ate for two years! Just to go and prove just how amazing this place is check out this clip from Diners, Drive-Ins' & Drives! :)
We finished up our evening by going to see a comedy called The Man Who Came to Dinner! We loved it! I was a little scared because when we walked in to the play everyone else who was there could have been around when it was originally wrote, in the 1930s! In fact, there was a couple who sat behind us who remember going to the original play when it came out! :) But even if the crowd was a few years older than us, the show was what we came for . . . and boy was it worth it! I don't even remember the last time I laughed so hard that tears leaked out of my eyes! :)

 At the end of the day, when the weekend was over, and it was time to go back home . . . back to reality, I was glad that my reality still included my sweetheart! Life is sweet when you have someone who loves you and you love them back and you can be together!