Always Something to See in Chicago

[quasigeostrophy]

Been home about an hour and a half, but I've been puttering about unwinding, putting Drano in our shower and bathroom sink drains so the smell has time to dissipate before Toni gets home tomorrow, and other fun stuff.

Class lasted an hour longer than usual last night. Dr. N decided to offer a voluntary review of infinite series for people for whom it had been a couple of semesters (or, as he added when glancing at me, "a couple of decades"). I wanted to hit the road, but really felt like I needed that review, so I didn't leave town until 9:15pm. I had been to campus earlier than usual, too, to get books for my chemistry class next session (since IUPUI finally decided to process and disburse my latest student loan). I had to get a text book bundled with a solutions guide, a separate text for the lab, an access code for online software used with the lecture, a key transponder to answer questions in lecture, safety goggles for lab, a set of chemistry tinker toys for molecular model building, and a blank lab notebook. I still need an acceptable calculator (one that does less than my current one), but I'll get that at Meijer later. Anyway, so all that and my current school books rode all the way on this trip with me, but at least I have a real trunk in the Civic. :-)

Got to the hotel in Hobart around 11:30pm, which wasn't bad considering I stopped to fill up the car and my tummy in Lebanon. And it's so nice to be able to get from Lebanon to Chicago and back home and still have almost 1/3 a tank of gas left! Spent some nice time chatting online with Toni and with cjsmith until I realized it was around 1:30am Indy time (I'd also forgotten that at least I would get an hour more of sleep than I thought due to DST at home this year. Not used to gaining an hour going to Chicago in the summer. Used to be we only did that in the winter.

This morning, I hit the road from Hobart and, expecting typical weekday morning rush hour Chicago traffic, overestimated and got to the Field Museum around 8:00am (my exhibit ticket was for a 9:30am entry). I am so glad Toni discovered Stony Island Avenue leads from the Skyway to Lake Shore Drive. When going downtown, that so beats dealing with the Dan Ryan parking lot Expressway. Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs was a fabulous exhibit. It didn't seem as crowded as I remembered from 1977, and the exhibit itself seemed to be a little smaller, but some of that could be fifth grade memory compared with adult perspective. The boy king himself isn't part of the exhibit, but I don't blame the Egyptian museum for limiting travel of the mummy. National Geographic is co-sponsoring this new tour and they've updated the exhibit with information from the 2005 CT scan of Tut's mummy. I'm glad I went for the audio tour (I never do that) - it is narrated by Omar Sharif and was terrific. I got a copy of the official exhibit catalog book and an audio CD of that tour is included. It took me a couple of hours to tour the King Tut exhibit. Afterward, I browsed the shop, checked out Sue (I had already seen it at The Children's Museum of Indianapolis a couple of years ago) and wandered for a little while before deciding to hit the road.

When I walked out of the north doors to the Field Museum, it was a gorgeous day. Standing on the steps, the view of Grant Park, the downtown skyline, and the Lake Michigan waterfront was gorgeous. Of course I didn't bring along a camera, but I'd have wanted to stitch together a panorama. The lakefront museum campus is so nice since they redirected Lake Shore Drive to one side rather than splitting around the Field Museum and Soldier Field.

I've learned that every time I go to Chicago to see one thing, I encounter something else I want to come back to see (I didn't want to be in town so late today and didn't have enough for another ticket anyway). While driving from Stony Island Ave. to Lake Shore Drive, I saw banners hanging up around the Museum of Science and Industry for what looks like a huge exhibit on Leonardo da Vinci. It's there through September 4, so I may have to find time during an off weekend or something to go back up with Toni or do something like I did today.

Driving home was uneventful but busy. I-65 usually dies down south of Crown Point until around West Lafayette, but not today for some reason.

It was a much-needed and effective break. Going to unwind tonight, possibly crash early (I can tell I'm still a bit sleep-deprived from last night) and study some tomorrow until time to pick up Toni. 2nd test is Monday evening.

Comments

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a fantastic exhibit - thanks for posting the review.

And Omar Sharif narrating = my mom would just die! Maybe I can talk her into coming when it's in Philly next year.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

They had a lot of pieces from some of Tut's relatives' tombs in addition to stuff from his own, which was cool. Some of my favorite pieces are the jars the embalmers put the mummified organs in. Creepy yet so much artistic effort - the fine detail of hieroglyphics is amazing.

[elmegil.livejournal.com]

da Vinci! I saw the banners when we went to Kite Day back at the start of May, and I thought it looked a bit much like "the code", but I'm sure Kevin would jump at any chance to spend hours with the huge train layout at MSI :-)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Maybe we should plan a day when we can come up for the weekend sometime. I'm sure some of the exhibit is probably inspired by the whole Code brouhaha but I'll take any excuse for da Vinci. :-)

[karenthecroccy.livejournal.com]

How nerdy am I to say that I'm insanely jealous that you went to see the King Tut exhibit!? :)

Si, it's good to unwind!

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Nothing wrong with being nerdy about King Tut. :-)