The Shedd Aquarium and Lake Michigan

Yesterday (Wednesday, November 7th) Missy, Danny and I took ourselves into the city to go to the Shedd Aquarium. I haven't been to an aquarium since I was about 6 years old and went to SeaWorld (which was crappy back then) so I was very excited to go.

We caught the Metra train in, about an hour from Aurora in to Union Station in Chicago. Very pleasant train trip, the trains were clean, secure, with absolutely no grafitti or vandalism like we get in Brisbane, and the conductor was very polite and friendly. They still use a little paper card ticket that the conductor punches holes in. Danny managed to make a new friend, as he always does, of a guy from India who was sitting on the seats nearby.

Once we got in to Union Station we stopped to use the restrooms. I bring this up because Danny was on our case about making sure we put toilet paper on the seats before we "went" and was really worried about the hygiene of them. Well he needn't have been - not only were they well maintained, but they had this WEIRD plastic toilet seat cover bizzo on them that you pressed a button and fresh plastic scrolled over the seat, so you never sat on someone's bum germs!

Caught a taxi to Shedd Aquarium because it turned out to be cheaper than the bus, and way quicker. We landed a BEAUTIFUL day in Chicago, with lots of lovely sunshine even though it was rather brisk in temperature. Here is a photo of the Shedd with a view over Lake Michigan:



The views around the area of the aquarium were spectacular, and Lake Michigan is just beautiful. It's very weird to see such a huge body of fresh water.

This is Missy and I with a view of the Chicago skyline and Lake Michigan:



And then me (in my little red riding hood) with the Sears Tower behind me:



Once inside the aquarium proper, it was so fascinating with so much stuff to look at it took us AGES. Aquatic life from all around the world, some of the weirdest fish I have ever seen. Mostly I took video from inside the aquarium and oceanarium because the light wasn't that great for still photography, and those videos are too large yet to upload on to YouTube for you. But I did get a few photos.

Particular favourites there were the beluga whales (which have a 2 month old baby at the moment), the white-sided dolphins, the otters, the tropical fish, the lizard display, and of course penguins! The seahorses were beautiful too:



Oh, and for the interested parties... I did not see one squid. Though I think the penguins may have had a spy in their midst, I'll let you decide:



And with that, I will leave you with this friend I made at the Shedd Aquarium: