Fishies and Dolphins and Lizards

In honor of The Boy's last day of Spring Break, we made a family outing to the John G. Shedd Aquarium, at his request. Because admission is so expensive, I decided just to join the aquarium. Two more trips and we've paid for it. And because they are closing the aquarium for a bit in September for renovations, they are giving everyone 15-month memberships.

We hit a traffic detour due to the unforeseen Shamrock Shuffle, which was finishing up down Roosevelt Road as we got downtown, but still made it down to the Shedd by 10:30. As The Boy knows, I am cheap when it comes to parking; the meters were full by the time we got there, so The Dad dropped us off and went to park in our secret spot.

The Boy mostly determined our aquarium route. They were doing the diver-in-the-tank thing in the Rotunda when we first arrived, so we watched that for a bit. Then The Girl wanted to see the penguins, so we crossed over to the Oceanarium to see the penguins , whales, and dolphins in the underwater tanks. The Baby toddled around a bit. We watched a dolphin show at 11:30, and then crossed back over to the aquarium to see the sharks in the Wild Reef exhibit. The Baby liked watching the fish if he was with daddy; if I was around, he just wanted me to hold him. We crossed back over to the Oceanarium side again for lunch. It was so crowded that they had opened up a back room for overflow seating, and then the employee lunch room off of that for even more overflow seating.

After lunch, The Baby and I found a quiet corner to nurse and fall asleep while The Dad took The Boy and The Girl through the Dragons exhibit. We went back over to the main aquarium and looked at some of the main hall fish and frogs, but by then, the aquarium was super crowded and we were all quite tired. So we called it a day and went home. Everyone (save me and The Dad) fell asleep in the car on the way home. A sign of a successful outing.