Field Museum of Chicago

An amazing natural history museum! The building was built for the 1893 Columbia Exposition and it is huge. The guide book said to spend an hour but we spent about three just going through the exhibit that covered the history of life on earth supported by the most incredible collection of fossils we've ever seen. Starting with "Sue" the most complete T Red skeleton in the world there are dozens of dinosaur skeletons, fossils of some of the oldest life from ancient seas and including "Lucy", our ancestor from the Rift Valley of Africa.

Lynnae and Sue

View from the steps of the museum

Chicago Blues at the Kingston Mines

One of the top blues clubs in Chicago is the Kingston Mines, which just happens to be about a 10 minute walk from Lucas' apartment in Lincoln Park. I headed down there to catch some authentic Chicago blues and I wasn't disappointed.  J.W. Williams and his band was the real deal and the club had just enough "character" to complete the picture.  Where Buddy Guy's Legends had the cajun kitchen and walls adorned with guitars signed by Kieth Richards, Eric Clapton, etc, the Kingston Mines had a take-out window in the back with burgers and dogs.  Check out the clips below.

 

Pequod's Pizza

So we HAD to try authentic Chicago-style deep-dish pizza.... at least once.

Having a pint and tea and watching the Chicago world go by.

Second City

We caught a show at the Second City improv theater. This was where John Belushi, Bill Murray, Steve.Carrell and so many others started out. We laughed till it hurt for two hours last night!

Lincoln Park Zoo

One of the last free urban zoos in America, Lincoln Park Zoo is wonderful. We spent about three hours and saw pretty much all of the zoo by the shore of Lake Michegan. For a small zoo, they have a wonderful population of animals. Some of the highlights were the lions and tigers, the very nice Africa exhibit showing animals and plants from several different climate zones, the flamingos (they looked really cold) and especially the monkeys, chimpanzees and gorillas. We got to see the latter less than a foot away through the glass.

Diamond Jim Greene at Buddy Guy's Legends blues club

Watching an acoustic blues set, eating fried okra and soon we'll get our jambalaya, catfish smothered with crawfish etoufee and gumbo with cornbread.  Almost like being in Louisiana again!