The Field Museum

It is nice to live close enough to Chicago for a day trip. When the museums are having free days, it is worth the drive up! The Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium happened to be having the same free admission day, so that seemed like the perfect time to go up. It was nice to have a break from our normal routine! 

They don't look excited at all, do they?

The big attraction after you walk through the door is Sue, the T. Rex skeleton.

Here is Eli, trying to reconstruct Sue, piece by piece! Lot of fun exhibits and hands-on learning at the Field Museum. Honestly, if we didn't have an energetic 3-year-old with us, we would have slowed down and taken more time to read. You could spend all day there!

You won't need an introduction to these large cats if you have read The Man-eaters of Tsavo by John Henry Patterson or seen the movie The Ghost and the Darkness! Great movie (but may not be appropriate for your children depending on their ages). These are the great Man-Eaters of Tsavo. Find out more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsavo_Man-Eaters

Can you identify the species?

And this guy was hanging from the ceiling also! 

Some bonus octopus facts:

Each Octopus has three hearts. Two of them allow the blood to circulate to the gills. The other is for the body to circulate the blood.

An Octopus has no skeleton. This is why it is able to get into very small spaces.

A female Octopus can lay up to 200,000 eggs at once depending on the species. Approximately 2/3 of the offspring will die within the first couple of weeks of life.

They have extremely good eyesight.

The largest species of Octopus is the North Pacific Giant Octopus. They can weigh about 100 pounds and have arms up to 14 feet long. The smallest species is the California Octopus. They are less than 1 inch in size.

Should an Octopus lose an arm it can grow another in its place.

None of the species of Octopus make any types of sounds for communication.
They don’t have the ability to hear.

A lot of people are fascinated with ancient Egypt. What a magnificent period in history! I think the girls enjoyed this exhibit more than in the past since we studied this in-depth last year.

I know, this may look gross to some, but I am fascinated with how well preserved the bodies were. The Egyptians took so much care when embalming, primarily because they believed in preparing for the afterlife. For more information on the embalming process, check out this site: http://www.angelfire.com/wi/egypt/mummy2.html

These are jars which held internal organs!