8.13.18 - Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planetarium, architecture tour, The Violet Hour

Our original plan for Monday was to see the Shedd Aquarium, get lunch at Al’s Beef, go on the architectural tour, and then go for a late dinner at The Violet Hour. Then we’d go to the Adler Planetarium on Tuesday, our last full day. However Jack said early on he wanted to see the Art Institute, so we had to figure out when that would happen. So we tried to get up and going earlier on Monday (10am instead of 11am) and the plan was to see both the aquarium and planetarium the same day, leaving Tuesday for the Art Institute.

We wanted a cheap and quick breakfast so we stopped by NYC Bagels, which was on the way to the El station anyway. We both got croissants toasted with egg and sausage, and sipped Diet Coke from Jack’s travel mug that he’d prepped at the hotel. We found the right El station (this one underground and strangely warm) and it took less than 10 minutes to get within a couple blocks of Museum Campus. We decided we didn’t even need sunscreen for the 15 minute or so walk to the aquarium because there’s so much skyscraper shade, which is great.

On the walk there we went by the Agora sculptures that the Big Bus Tour guide, Lance, had explained last Friday. We went to check them out and I found them thought-provoking and sad. The rest of the walk we also stopped to see the statue of Columbus and then we did our previous day interview under a pretty stained glass type sculpture near the lake.

I’ve never been to an aquarium before and I was kind of excited about it. We got to go in the City Pass line, almost walking right up to the counter, compared to the longer General Admission line. Love that. A couple behind us moved past us to try to enter the aquarium directly with their City Passes (instead of exchanging the passes for aquarium tickets) and they had to go back to the end of the line. Suckers. When it was our turn the employee explained we could pick a “4D” movie to see for no additional cost. I asked how the movies could be 4D and he said it’s really just 3D movies plus interactive experiences like getting sprayed with water. Ha. We picked a movie about sharks.

As soon as entered the aquarium we checked out a display that showed both the low water and high water version of the Amazon and the different creatures that live in the river depending on the depth. It was amazing. First of all I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were not only fish but also some of the land animals that live in the area at low water, even monkeys. Second the high water part was almost intimidating. We were looking at water that rose a couple feet above our heads and included huge fish as well as stingrays. It was very impressive.

Soon it was time to see our “4D” shark movie. Previously I struggled to stay awake for our free movies at MSI and The Field Museum, but this time was different. First of all it was a pretty interesting movie, including sharks that can “walk” on land and sharks with amazing camouflage which lures fish toward them. Second, it was short, not even 20 minutes. But third and most importantly, it’s easy to stay awake when you keep randomly getting sprayed with water, haha.

After the movie we wandered outside to the stingray petting area. You have to rinse off your hands before going in, and then you’re supposed to hold your hand flat and still just above the surface and let the stingrays come to you. You’re supposed to pet along their spine and not the sides, otherwise they get annoyed and flap around a lot. It took a few minutes but eventually Jack got one. He said it was slimy and kind of scratchy at the same time.

We went back inside and explored the rest of the aquarium. There are countless smaller tanks with the pictures and names of the breeds on the side, which makes them easier to spot. We saw some huge crabs and tiny seahorses and kelp forests. We also saw about half a dozen Beluga whales (in a much bigger tank)! But my favorite section by far was the Wild Reef. It’s an exhibit that shows the creatures that live around the Philippines. It was very colorful—most of the tanks were filled with not only really colorful fish but also really colorful coral and sea urchins. It looked straight out of The Little Mermaid. There was also a tank with a bunch of (smallish) sharks and there were a lot of little kids sitting right up next to it watching the sharks swim back and forth. The kids were so excited. And, like with favorite sections of mine at the zoo a few days earlier, the whole exhibit was pretty dark and cool. We enjoyed it very much.

We finally finished with the aquarium and (after applying more sunscreen) decided to walk along the water to the Adler Planetarium and see if we could find some lunch there. The walk along the water was very beautiful with the Chicago skyline stretching out behind us. There weren’t that many people around either, far less than if we had walked along the street. When we got inside we realized that the price of standard adult admission was much less expensive than it would be for the Art Institute (about $13 vs $30) so we decided to pay cash for the planetarium and use our City Passes for the Art Institute the next day.

That was a good decision. The Planetarium was not as cool as I had expected. We got overpriced lunch at a (granted, very beautiful) café upstairs firs—I think Jack had a Cuban panini and I had a chicken caprese. Like much of the food on our trip, it was delicious, just not great quantities for the cost. Then we went downstairs to check out “A walk through time and space.” On the one hand I was a little disappointed because it was barely interactive at all. It was primarily a long hallway with cool lighting and a long plaque of information to read. On the other hand I still enjoyed it because the information was fascinating. It summarized what we’ve been able to learn or at least theorize about since the Big Bang (but not before that) and that the Big Bang is the name of an idea, not an explosion. I also had no idea how rapidly they believe a lot of the first elements happened. Fractions of seconds between the Big Bang and forming subatomic particles, for example.

We also saw a lot of very old telescopes—mostly older than the instruments we saw at MSI, more around the 1600s—and other instruments used to measure the stars and planets. Again I felt impressed with what people managed to figure out the first time around. Although to be fair we also saw three theories arguing that the universe revolved either around Earth or around a Sun that revolved around Earth. So there’s some trial and error, of course. Ha.

We left the Planetarium in time to get back to our hotel and let Jack grab a quick nap before we moved on to the architectural tour. While he was resting I picked all the best pictures from the day so far (a time-consuming but fun process). Our walk to Navy Pier was kind of quiet, but in a relaxed way. We both were noticing a lot of the toddlers and babies and thinking about our babies. I missed them but I knew I’d see them soon enough and I was overall really enjoying our kid-free time.

I had wanted to get to the architectural cruise really early to ensure we got seats on the side of the boat and not in the middle. But we got there so early that they let us get on the cruise departing before ours (6:45p instead of 7:30p) and it was mostly empty anyway. A few days prior (I think Friday when we were taking the River Walk) I noticed the evening cruises were much more empty than the daytime ones and I hoped that would hold true in our case, and it did! Our guide, William, told us this was the best time to take a cruise because the temperature had just cooled about 10 degrees and the sun was beginning to set, so you can start to see the city light up for the night.

He was a great tour guide and it was a very interesting tour. I know nothing about architecture but William was able to explain and point out the key features of about half a dozen disparate architecture styles along the river alone. My favorite was contextualism, which is apparently where the building is designed to reflect the environment around it. In the case of Trump Tower it has three balconies at the heights of other relevant buildings nearby. There was another contextualism-style building that arced slightly to follow the curve of the river and had a kind of blue-green glass styled to look like rippling water. Frankly it was beautiful, but I doubt I would have noticed any of that were it not for an architecture-specific guide. I was also charmed by a bunch of river-side condos with balconies with potted plants. William said they were going for about $2-3M each which actually sounded crazy low to me, given their location. But I guess I don’t know much about real estate, especially nationally.

When we were sailing (?) back toward the Sears Tower (William made a big deal about how local Chicagoans refuse to call it the Willis Tower), Jack and I were trying to take a selfie with the Sears in the background, quite unsuccessfully. A woman sitting a few rows back from us offered to take our picture, which I thought was sweet. Later when the tour was almost complete we also took a picture of her and her man in front of the whole beautiful skyline.

We got back shortly after sunset. The ride back was extra charming because of the lights coming up in the buildings. Jack suggested we take a walk down Navy Pier just to see what it’s like. I’m glad he did. I wasn’t going to because I figured it would just be really touristy, and it was, but it was still worth it because of the view of the city at night and being able to lean against the pier railings and watch the water with the light reflected on it. Just beautiful. And it was late enough that a lot of Navy Pier was already closed so there weren’t many people around at all. We did stop in a pizza place on the way back because we knew our location for dinner was really more of a bar with appetizers, so we wanted to fill up on something cheaper. We ate the pizza slices while walking back up the pier, and then we stopped at the end for several minutes to watch a bunch of little kids playing delightedly in the interactive fountain. We talked again about our own kiddos, who we hadn’t seen in several days.

The timing there was good, though, because we walked back to the hotel and got to video chat with them before heading out for a fancy but very late “dinner” at The Violet Hour, a tucked away bar suggested to us by Barry, who used to live in Chicago. The El ride there was easy enough but it took us awhile to find the place because it has no windows, no outside signs, nothing, just the address number (1520) painted outside along with a mural of people waiting to get into what looks like an old school speakeasy-type door. When we finally found it we walked in to a short hallway blocked by a very high floor-to-ceiling curtain and a sign that asked us to wait to be seated. An usher of some type told us to wait where we were, frankly a bit rudely. Shortly after he gestured us into the next area, which was still a waiting area of some type with another curtain blocking any view of the actual bar. He asked for our IDs and explained they don’t allow people to talk on their cell phones though texting is fine. I asked if taking photos was okay and he said yes, “I said just talking isn’t allowed.” I thought he was kind of a jerk, really, but he was the only one. Once we got inside everyone was very friendly and easy-going.

All of the two-top tables were taken so initially we were seated at the bar, which was fine, really. There was another couple ahead of us at the bar also waiting for a table and I hoped we would get one eventually but we weren’t in any particular hurry. I ordered a drink called Hotel Nacionel that involved pineapple and rum and other delicious things. I think Jack got a drink called “Gimme All Your Lovin’” heh. We actually weren’t at the bar very long before the hostess asked if we still wanted to move to a table. I guess the couple ahead of us decided to just stay at the bar so we got bumped up. The hostess took us to a table along the back wall. The tables were quite small and the chairs were very high-backed, so even though there were plenty of other people around it felt semi-private. There were zero TVs, of course. They were also playing some pretty enjoyable jazz music at just the right volume that you couldn’t really hear other people’s conversations but you didn’t have to yell to hear each other.

We ordered sliders, bacon-wrapped dates, and fries, along with another drink each. It was more than enough. We talked about past relationships and I don’t remember what else, I just remember enjoying it a lot. As far as I could see, for most of the time we were there every other table was also occupied by a couple. That was kind of nice. When it was done we took the El back to a few blocks from our hotel and walked along quiet late-night streets and back over the river. Like with every night we were there, the temperature was perfect. Didn’t need a coat or anything.