Heading to the airport after a whirlwind trip to the Museum of Science and Industry and watching Tornado Alley at the IMAX theatre. We'll be home soon!

Day 3 Recap

Today was a day full of museums, and thus learning! We started out at the Shedd Aquarium where the students were able to watch the dolphins and whales swim, dress up like penguins, touch the sea stars in the tide pools, explore the Wild Reef exhibit, and see a diver presentation in the Caribbean Reef.

Next we visited the renowned Field Museum of Natural History to visit Sue the T-Rex and several other interesting exhibits showing cultures from all areas of the world.

Our last museum stop was the Adler Planetarium where we watched a show about constellations and how to find them in the sky. We explored the solar system, ancient astronomy tools, and some even completed NASA missions!

We finished off the day at Ed Debevic's with the rudest waiters in America. The students enjoyed giving them a hard time and were definitely put in their places a time or two. After Ed's we had plans to go to the Skydeck of the Willis Tower, but a 2 hour wait convinced us to end the evening with an early return to the hotel for some card games and subdued social time.

The kids had a great time bantering w/ our in-your-face waiters @Ed Debevic's! 2 hour wait to visit the top of Willis Tower so we're headed back to the hotel.

We are finished with museums for the day, and boy are we tired! Time to "Eat at Ed's!"

Aquarium: check, Field Museum: check! Next up the Adler Planetarium

Day 2 Recap

Friday proved to be another full day, as most of the children were convinced it must be Saturday because of all we had seen and done!

We started off the day with "The Untouchables" tour, where two gangster looking tour guides hopped on our buses and took us on a whirlwind tour of the sites of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, John Dillinger's death, and (the former sites of) the speakeasies of the prohibition era.

Next we moved onto the Art Institute, which was a little overwhelming in terms of the sheer number of paintings and artifacts to visit, but we were able to see a lot. Students enjoyed seeing Grant Wood's American Gothic and seeing the largest collection of Monet paintings outside of Paris.

We then spent a relaxing afternoon at Navy Pier were students bought their generous and loving parents great souvenirs (!), watched magic and juggling shows, had caricatures drawn of themselves, and some even took part in riding one of the slowest Ferris wheels I've ever seen!

We ended the evening with a night of food, fun, and fighting at Medieval Times! We feasted without silverware, cheered on the yellow knight, and a few lovely ladies in our group even received flowers after our knight was victorious. Spirits were high, and we had several honored guests...check out the pictures of the 8th grade boys.

And of course, we celebrated Hannah P.'s 13th birthday all day long :). She built her first bear ever at Build-A-Bear!

The lords and ladies have left the castle, and once again good triumphed over evil. Allie and Hannah H. even received flowers from the yellow knight!