Chicago

Chicago is a great town! I had been here once before a few years ago for the International Reading Association convention. Didn't get to see anything in the short time I was here the. It has been fun to do the tourist things this time.

Yesterday we went to the top of the Hancock Building. The view of the city and Lake Michigan was absolutely beautiful. After that we visited the Field Museum. We saw Sue, the dinosaur. It is the most complete T-Rex skeleton in the world.

We went to two different exhibits. The most incredible one to me was a series of photographs that were taken during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950's and 60's. The photos were in black and white and depicted the events surrounding Dr. Martin Luther King and the other leaders of the quest for equal rights. I remember when all of this was going on, but I had forgotten about so much of what had taken place during that time. One of the most somber was a picture of Dr. King's motel room after he had been killed. Once again, this exhibit reminded me that we don't look back at history and learn from it so that we don't repeat previous mistakes.

There was also an incredible exhibit on Native Americans. It is a very large exhibit and shows the progression of early people through tools, pottery and art. The exhibit displayed thousands of years of artifacts and is amazing!

We then visited the Shedd Aquarium. It was fun to see the Beluga Whales, sea lions, and dolphins.

The last tourist "thing" that we did was take a one hour boat trip on the Chicago River to learn about the different architectural designs on the different buildings in Chicago. It was awesome!!
We are off again this morning to visit Sears Tower and take a boat ride on Lake Michigan among other things.