Our Trip to Chicago and the Shedd Aquarium

The 16th or 17th of August is celebrated annually as the anniversary of a road trip I took with my maternal Grandpa back in 1983. This year Lisa and I planned a trip to Chicago for that day, as a last hurrah to summer before the kids went back to school.

"Chicago" is a bit too general; our destination was the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, since I was armed with a family pass generously provided by a co-worker. With four kids a road trip is always a crapshoot, but the kids were good on the way down. We stopped at the Lake Forrest Oasis for lunch, which helped. Aside from the food, the atmosphere of that rest stop always seems to put them in a good mood.

On the way into Chicago itself we could see planes from the Air show, which kept the youngin's entertained through the traffic, and I did a good deed, paying for the car behind us at the toll booth.

We parked near Solider Field, the home of the hated Chicago Bears, but the area itself is beautiful and moving. 

We stopped to read the quote from JFK's inaugural address ("Let every nation know . . . ") that's inscribed on the memorial, and I recited it in a passable Kennedy brogue that brought praise from Lisa.

Then it was into the Shedd itself, and thanks to our pass we completely skipped a line that seemed to stretch the horizon. Haha suckers!

As for the aquarium itself, well, there were a lot of neat things to see, as you'll notice as this post goes on. But all in all, I don't think it was all that much more impressive then the aquarium at the Milwaukee County Zoo. Hey, don't shoot the messenger.

At first the kids were a little moody as we moved through the exhibits, but they eventually worked that out among themselves (if 'among themselves' means with massive parental intervention).

Two things that were super cool: the shark tank and the tube worms I'm probably remembering the name of the tube things wrong, but whatever; either way they were neat.

Now around the time of the shark tank we came across a stingray exhibit that allowed you to walk above them, like on a glass bottomed boat. Smiley flipped out and was clearly afraid, and in the wake of that reaction he started to bully Ginger. It was obvious that the panic and fear had humiliated him, and to restore the status quo he felt the need to lash out. As he inherited the anxiety from me, I recognized the action and checked it, taking the time to explain to him why he felt the way he did. I think - but obviously there's no way to know in the here and now - I think that was a pivotal moment in him coming to recognize and master his anxiety.

Here are some cool pictures we took as we toured the aquarium.

 As a kid I remember wondering what an island looked like below water - was it just floating there like a bar of soap in the tub? So I especially liked this exhibit, a model of what an island looks like above and below sea level

There was a small kids area set up like a campground, and the kids spent some time playing there. Ginger, I remember, 'cooked' me bacon and eggs on the camp stove.

In the main lobby of the Shedd there's a very large free standing water tank, and while we waited to see the aquatic show we passed the time there, with the lil' ones glued to the tank and YaYa sitting and enjoying some popcorn with Mom.

Soon enough we headed for the show, first stopping to check out the travelling jellyfish exhibit on display.

I'll tell you what impressed me about the aquatic show; the sheer size of the venue. It’s an indoor amphitheater with the ‘stage’ being a large pool with a few ‘rock’ outcroppings. Behind this is an enormous array of ceiling to floor windows overlooking Lake Michigan. Once the show begins a curtain descends covering all the windows – an ENORMOUS area – and that curtain becomes a video screen for the show itself. Wow.

The show was less wow. The kids loved it and the crowd soaked it up, but I thought it was ho-hum. The falconry portions may amaze the hicks, but again, our zoo is pretty wicked and we’ve seen it before. Ditto the dolphin stuff, although we saw that on our trip to the Bahamas. Part of me – and I’ll never admit this out loud – was a little put off by the hypocrisy of training these dolphins to perform like pet monkeys while at the same time lauding their intelligence. It wasn’t my cup of tea.

After the show we briefly ventured out to the patio to gaze at the skyline. Here I performed my second good deed of the day, carrying a stroller down a steep flight of stairs for a Mom with her hands full.

How’s this for a group shot of my kids? Gorgeous!

Then we left the Shedd (stopping to point and say ‘haha!’ at the folks stuck in the long line outside, 

and went across the street to a small play area. Lisa left to go get the car alone, but got turned around and lost after she left the parking garage, leaving me and the kids with a heck of a lot of free time on our hands.

Neat little tidbit: once we reconnected with Lisa, we drove by three African American hookers straight out of a bad ‘70’s movie, leading to a lot of interesting questions on the drive out of Chicago!

The original plan was this: Go to the Shedd, grab a hotel room, then spend the following day at the Bristol Rennasaasance Faire. Our original aim was to find a hotel midway between Chicago and Milwaukee, namely in Gurnee. We had no luck. Some hotels were booked. Some had no working whirlpool. All were overpriced. So we scrapped that idea and decided to just eat out instead, spend the night at home, then go to the Ren Faire in the morning. So we ate at Golden Corral in Kenosha, spending a lot more money than it was worth.

I was very upset about the hotel situation, and, I admit, indecisive. At the last moment, when we were already back in the city of Milwaukee itself, I pulled into a hotel and went in alone to discuss room rates. I soon texted Lisa a “Bring ‘em in” which, I’m told, let to a rousing and heartfelt cheer from the kids! More than anything, the success of the trip and heck, even the summer, seemed to ride on staying overnight at a hotel. Silly, IMHO, but there ya have it.

 The kids swam with Lisa until the pool closed, and then we crashed for the night. In the morning we dined at the free continental breakfast, then Lisa read by the pool while I swam with the kids. 

And then it was on to home (well, onto an estate sale we passed on the way, where we bought a new dark wood end table for $10).

A great trip with a great family, and a great anniversary of Grandpa’s Day!

Five Movies

 The Five Year Engagement with Jason Segal and Emily Blunt. It was funny and sweet while at the same time showing relationship problems in a realistic light; Segal can craft a quality script. However, I would say that the last half hour was Hollywood tripe - in the real world the relationship would have ended where it temp. did in the film. Lisa disagreed and liked it start to finish. I grade this romcom a B+

Casa de mi Padre is a spanish language spoof by Will Ferrell that treads too carefully down the middle; too little comedy to make it worth your while for laughs, not enough dramatic substance to flesh out what what had the makings of a decent story. I'm glad I rented it, but I'm equally glad I didn't pay to see it in the theaters. Grade: C-

I found Intruders to be a genuinely frightening and well done Boogeyman tale. It's the story of two children, separated by language and geography (the boy in Spain, the girl in the UK) who write a story about a figure they call Hollowface, who then enters their world to terrorize them. Lisa was not as enamored of the film as I was, but I thought it was intelligent and, at the very least, certainly well filmed. [Note the brief but intrusive intervention of the Nanny State once NHS is involved; it made me ill]. Grade: B

The worse thing about The Corridor is that one of the actors looks like Bradley Cooper's slightly less attractive brother, and another sports a fake bald head that looks like it was crafted with Elmer's Glue and yarn in my kids Kindergarten class. Beyond that, the movie was OK. Nothing earth-shattering or original: some buddies on a camping trip find an alien 'corridor' in the woods, with predictable results. The bulk of the movie, like I said, was OK, but the opening sequence, where one character has gone nuts and assaults the others over the corpse of his mother, was damn engaging. Grade: C+

I also watched "Ted" one morning. It's ridiculous and low-brow, vulgar and devoid of any plot points you haven't seen 1000x before (well, maybe not the teddy bear on cashier sex; that was new). My verdict? Funny as hell. I LOL'd time and again and had tears streaming down my face. I didn't wet my pants laughing, but that's probably just because I was dehydrated. Grade: A

Reviews: Dark Shadows, That's My Boy, Outlaw Platoon

Two recent bits of fascinating trivia from a copy of Archaeology (Sept/Oct ’12) magazine that arrived in the mail Saturday:

As much of 4% of the sand currently on the beaches of Normandy isn’t sand at all. It’s actually tiny bits of shrapnel leftover from the D-Day invasion, along with iron and glass beads formed by the intense heat of explosions that June morning. 4% of all the sand on the beach, even after 68 years of weather and waves. Wow.

Behind a pub in Shoreditch in the UK archaeologists have uncovered what remains of the Curtain Theatre. The predecessor to Shakespeare’s more famous Globe Theater, the playhouse in all likelihood hosted the very first performances of Henry V and Romeo and Juliet.

****

Animal Practice has been cancelled by NBC. Three remaining episodes will air before being replaced by the much-maligned Whitney – which means that yes, the ratings were THAT bad. As luck would have it this week’s episode [Who’s Afraid of Virginia Coleman?] was the first that I felt really captured the characters and provided solid comedy. Sayonara.

****

Lisa and I watched the Johnny Depp film version of Dark Shadows. I know it was generally scorned by diehard fans of the show, and one ‘super fan’ I know refused to even see it. But I think if you approach the movie without preconceived notions about how it should interpret the storyline (and I had none, having seen one episode at most) then I don’t see how you walk away without liking the flick. The acting was top-notch, the story was more than up to par, and the laughs were genuine, not at the expense of the characters or plot. It’s safe to say Lisa and I both grade this an unexpected A.

On the other hand, on Lisa’s birthday we watched Adam Sandler in That’s My Boy, which should be more accurately re-titled The Epitome of a Bad Movie. Lisa claims to have enjoyed it, and called me out for laughing a few times. It’s true, there were a few laughs. I loved Vanilla Ice’s role, I want the full back New Kids on the Block tattoo, and a few odds and ends were amusing. Big wup. I don’t understand why Sandler thinks talking like a speech-impaired whino for 90 minutes is supposed to be funny in movie after movie. Plus, every joke could have been written by a middle school kid with a C average, and, oh, yeah, there’s the whole “this movie glorifies and excuses statutory rape and pedophilia” thing. I grade this a miserable F

I’ve finished reading Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan by Sean Parnell (with John Bruning). It’s a memoir of Parnell’s time as a motorized infantry platoon leader in eastern Afghanistan.

 It’s the first book of any kind I’ve read on either the Iraqi or Afghan war, and found it informative and enjoyable. Parnell (well, Bruning) has a good flair for putting you right there in the heat of the battle. Still, at times the ‘warrior’ mystique is shoved down your throat with all the finesse of a B movie WWII flick. That’s fine I guess, but even taking that into account there’s the occasional hyperbole that makes you roll your eyes.

All things are relative, to be sure; for instance, if someone throws a punch at me today it will be enough of an affront to my world to inspire a blog post or two. Likewise, the skirmishes and ambushes Parnell encounters are awful, certainly by the standards of my life and probably yours as well. But having been groomed on tales of WWII and Vietnam. . . another platoon is attacked and the horror of it shatters their moral; in the attack a single American is wounded, shot in the foot. Chapters are devoted to horrific attacks that spawn not a single American killed or wounded. Wave after wave of the enemy are wiped out for literally hours – resulting in about 40 enemy dead. The back of the book compares the number of men wounded in Parnell’s platoon in a year to “a [casualty] rate not seen since Gettysburg”.

All love to the Parnell and the platoon, but you are 30 men. Should you stumble into your own Alamo, it still won’t come remotely close to being worthy of comparison to Gettysburg.

Like I said tho’, it is informative and entertaining. I grade it a B+/A-

Book #81 of the year

Quote

“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The Tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.” Archbishop Fulton Sheen