The Chicago Field Museum

While in Chicago, we simply had to visit the Field Museum.  Mostly to see the dinosaurs...you know...that T-Rex named Sue?  We also really wanted to see some mummies.

Well, our visit to the Field Museum did not disappoint!  (Yes, we used our COSI membership to get in free, but it would have been worth the price of admission.)

Meet Sue.  The world's largest, most complete, and best preserved T-Rex.  42 feet long.  13 feet tall.  Weighing in at 7 tons during life.

Is it just me, or does it look like Connor is using his little brother as a human shield?

Those are all actual bones, not reproductions.  Well, except for the skull.  Sue's actual skull is a mess, and this is a reconstruction of what it would have looked like before it was crushed.

 Here is Sue's real skull.

 See what I mean?

Well, if seeing Sue was our first order of business (and it was), then finding some mummies was our second.  We made a beeline for the Ancient Egypt exhibit next, and entered what looked like a tomb.  The exhibit was very well done, and it's possible that Connor and Lex thought they were in a real tomb, not just a room in museum that was made to resemble a tomb.

This was the first mummy we found, and of course Connor and Lex shouted with glee that they had done it!  They had found the "mommy!" 

Then, the next mummy we found was the "daddy."  I'm totally serious.  I couldn't have made that up if I tried.

Once the boys were satisfied that they had found the mommy and the daddy, they decided they were ready to see more dinosaurs.  So, off to the main dinosaur exhibit hall.  (Sue is special, you see, so she isn't tucked away with the other bones, but instead right in the middle of the museum on display.)

The Field Museum has a great dinosaur exhibit hall.  All the standard favorites are there on display.

Yes, that's Lex sitting on a real dinosaur bone.  If I remember correctly, it was part of a leg.  Can you imagine digging that thing up?  Or running into the dinosaur it belonged to?  HUGE.

Step into this Apatosaurus footprint.  Indeed.

 Connor...

 ...and Lex.

Then, what have we here?

An exhibit about the Meteor Crater!  With a big old hunk of the meteor on display for you to touch.  This was a great Hey kids, remember when we went there? moment for us.

Last, but probably my favorite, we toured the museum's precious gems collection.  There were diamonds and rubies and emeralds, set in necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings, or just loose.

These are topaz.  See that huge loose heart shaped one?

That's the Chalmers Topaz.  It is 5,899.5 carats, and weighs more than two and a half pounds!  Just look at it compared with the necklaces...it's as big as my entire neck!

Sidebar:  I love the .5 carats included in the size.  Because when you have almost 6,000 carats, that last .5 is *very* important.