Skydeck, Chicago

Skydeck was pretty cool.  We headed in to see it Saturday night after selling. Took the train in to eat dinner and get up to the deck at sunset to watch. At least that was the plan. We got off the train at 7:40 and were in shock as we walked around town and every single food place, restaurant, etc (in reach) was closed. And had closed at 7 PM. What the.....?  There were heards of people just walking down the sidewalk and no place to eat? what are they thinking? I'm sure they could pull in so much more money by staying open!  We didn't let this phase us, though. We head straight to the tower instead and were amazed when they told us it would be an hour long wait.  Good thing we had our fast passes! Even with those, though, the wait was 20 minutes. Main attractions are making this city so much money! The best part of this whole thing (okay maybe not the best part but the funniest part) was the elevator ride up. They had people cramming 30+ people into each elevator with strollers, babies, etc. It was hot, stinky, and super cramped...but at least the ride wasn't that long. They had these elevators FLYING up and up. We made it up 103 floors in 60 seconds. Craziest feeling ever! My ears popped and I got a little dizzy. But it was cool. 

And the views were fantastic

Yay for Asians willing to take our picture

Loved seeing the lights get dimmer in the distance, but never really stop. There literally isn't a square mile for hundreds of miles around that isn't lit up with human life. Big cities are so crazy!

Funny Asian man hat. I wonder why he bought this goofy lookin thing?

Finally made it into the glass box to see the building drop beneath our feet. it was a little unsettling- because you were literally standing on 103 floors of air with nothing keeping you from falling but a thin layer of glass, but it was also really really cool. And another "awe" moment of man-made objects. The cars looked like little baby ants. In the dark their lights were hardly able to even be seen. This building was HUGE!

Cool to be able to see lights across the lake...a whole different state. Apparently from each vantage point you should be able to see a different state on a clear day. Nuts.  This experience taught me I need to learn more about my camera and how to get good shots with it....learn the settings and such. And made me jealous of this with the really really nice ones. Maybe Santa will be nice this year.....haha

This is a lego structure of the building we're in. Weston loved it. And it made me think of my childhood for sure. Sunday "spaceship" makings....whose could withstand the hardest crash...Good times :)

We forgot how high up we were until we looked up from the base of the building. Literally, Sky High. 

And the Globe outside the building which Weston had to talk himself out of climbing all the way to the top and standing "on the top of the world." I kinda wish he would have done it just because the picture would have been great...but we were too scared of big fines.  After this we went to the closest 7 Eleven and got jerky sticks, candy bars, and a half gallon of milk for dinner and people watched until it was time to head back to make our train back home.  A great dinner date :)  At least it had character...  I'm all about adventures like these!

Field Museum!

I think the coolest place we've been so far was this museum. ABSOLUTELY GINORMOUS.  We skipped a day of work (sort of, Weston didn't go out selling on the Monday after the aquarium visit, I brought along my clipboard for scheduling routes and has all the salesman call my phone) and went to the city, once again. to see this amazing museum.  Larger than any I'd ever seen and loaded with artifacts that blew our minds.

Of course he had to test out his climbing skills on the pillars.  The verdict? Yes, he could climb to the top if he wanted to.  No harness=not okay with me.

they were big.

Simply walking in to the museum was a little overwhelming. A Grand entryway and each archway you see is a doorway to another section of the museum with more artifacts.  Needless to say, there were a lot. 

Elephants are big. I never pictured them THAT big

Meet Sue. The largest AND most complete TRex fossil in the whole word.  She was incredible!! (Well actually, we later read that the gender was unknown and indiscernible. They call her Sue after the woman who found her). 

Note: This is not the real head of Sue. it's a replica made because Sue's real head was something like 1200 lbs and there was no way they could have managed to hold it up as it needed to stand. 

Facts about Sue.  She blew our minds!

Weston snapped this picture of me working. Each time my phone rang I had to head out of the section we were in to open area for better connection to schedule what sales were made.  Yay 12 hr day of work!

Like I said, this place was huge. 

Great statues over the entry way.

My second-favorite room was full of the world's Gems!  Lots of absolutely amazing jewelry from all around the world, and polished to its pristine state!  I was in love. And wanted them all, naturally.  I think my favorite was the opal rings they had..but I failed to take a picture. However these were nice as well:

Ruby set from Old-English times

Emerald

One of the world's biggest crystals: 5,899.5 carats. WOWZA

Jade was also really cool. Besides this small section they had an entire room of jade jewelry, teapots, artifacts, etc from China. It really is a beautiful stone/gem.

This diamond ring was incredible. I don't remember the stats on it but...ya I was in awe. 

Creepy doll things from Thailand, I think? 

HUGE Totem poles

weird Buddha thing...

Again with the Totems, this one was hilarious. 

Whole room full of them

Masks for rituals for Incas/Mayas I think they said. 

More climbing

Aztec sundial thing, Very cool

This would be our home. That would be our bed. So comfy! No privacy! What a different lifestyle

This was from the Genghis Khan section...we strolled right through that cause we were starting to get tired...and wanted to get to the Dinosaurs!!

Fossilized wood. VERY COOL

Branchiosaurus? Really really big dinosaur. I think they said these guys got up to 171 feet long....

It was BIG

Stegosaurus. Couldn't help but think of Land Before Time as we walked through here. 

Their heads were so small in comparison to their large bodies! but still way bigger than my head!

Weston's favorite

That, my friends, is a TRex TOOTH. Yikes

I think I surprised him

The femur bone of the bronchiosaurus, I believe. Just shows ya how big they really are....

Old Bear

And let's not forget the mammoth!! 

So this is just a small sample of everything we saw. There was a whole section on meteorites and different kinds of rock. Stalagmites and tites. A Jade palace. An ancient egypt section. A section on how they've learned how to recreate clay heads of mummies just by CAT scanning their burial boxes...the name is slipping me right now...and letting us see what the people inside look like without tampering with anything. There was sections on Pacific Islands, and mammals of the real world. A section on the plants that have kept humans alive, given us medicine, etc. A section on ancient worlds like the Incas, Mayas, Aztecs, etc and their clothing, utensils, etc. (This was a cool section because Weston felt like he was seeing into the lives of Nephites/Lamanites). A section for Thailand and their beautiful artifacts- lots of gold stuff. It was cool to make comparisons of the old worlds. For instance, a lot of the artifacts that came from China and that area were gold and colorful and very elaborate. Lots of their attire was silky and ornate, whereas the artifacts from the Americas and Eskimos was mainly skins, clay sculptures, all very simple and stained with natural berries, etc. I found all this very fascinating. I guess it's the history buff coming out in me. I've always loved learning about the past.  Anyways we didn't even get to see everything in the museum and we were there for 5 hours. And we loved every second of it! Even if our heads were exploding with information as we walked out of there...