Ghosttown

To compensate for our disastrous afternoon yesterday, I took The Boy, The Girl, and The Tot to the Field Museum this afternoon. It's not The Boy's favorite thing to do, but I parked in the lot by Northerly Island and we all walked over to the museum together. We walked along the lakefront, which was really quite pleasant, although I bored the kids by telling them yet again that Mama used to come down to this harbor when she was a little girl to go out on Grandpa Texas' sailboat. (The Boy: "Mom, you told us that last time.") The weather was lovely -- sunny, warm in the sun, cool in the shade with a nice breeze. We stopped to admire the view of the city:





before continuing on to the museum. As we flashed our membership, there was someone in front of us with her kids who I knew, but I cannot remember from where. We ran into them repeatedly throughout the museum today. The museum was a ghost town.

First up was a visit to the Crown Family Playlab. The Girl misheard me and wanted to know where the playland was. After I cleared that up, we had a great time inside the playlab. The Girl, The Boy, and The Tot had great fun in the Pueblo, moving corn cobs from room to room. The Tot, who loves corn on the cob, repeatedly tried to eat the different pieces -- maybe he was hoping that one of them would be real? We also played the drums in the Rhythm Section and read a book in the book corner before we moved outside the lab to have a snack.

While we were sitting on the living room suite outside the playlab, eating our cheese sticks and cookies, Jessica and Lil E walked by on their way out. Everybody's museuming before school starts!

After our snack, we went upstairs. The Boy wanted to see Evolving Planet, The Girl wanted to see the gems. Neither wanted to go to the other's choice. But we did both, plus a gander at Sue. The gems hall is missing several gems, plus The Tot did not want to be held and I did not feel comfortable letting him wander around a dark room alone, so it was a rather mad dash through the gems hall. Or as mad it could be with The Girl asking me to read every placard. Then we went to see Evolving Planet, although The Boy did not want me to read any of the placards and he went racing through.

The Tot was getting to the end of his rope in Evolving Planet, so we skedaddled. I carried The Girl most of the way back to the car, while The Tot rode in the stroller. It was a chilly walk. The Tot fell asleep in the car. We stopped at Trader Joe's in Lincoln Park on the way home.