More stuff I saw

I had a blast at the Shedd Aquarium. What made it nice for me was that the Hubs was able to meander through the Aquarium with me (or in my vicinity as I do tend to wander here and there). His Boss (TB) and the Boss' wife (TBW) were also in attendance. What happened was that TB and TBW saw us at breakfast and joined us. We found out the Hubs and TB had a break around 10am, so TBW and I invited them to go out with us. The closest thing to the hotel that we hadn't seen as yet was the Shedd Aquarium.

We met up with the guys and walked the 1/2 mile to the Aquarium. It was a nice walk. We were able to walk past all the stage equipment that needed to be set up for Lollapalooza. At one point, a couple of the employees at the aquarium put some food (cut up fish) in one tank. It was a feeding frenzy! That was something to see. The highlight for me was the tank that held about 15 jellyfish. The tank had a black surround and was lighted in blue so people could actually SEE all the jellyfish. It was fantastic.

TB got hungry after a bit. We walked about 3/4 of a mile to an Italian cafe. We ate outside and people watched. Of course, the Hubs and TB had to go back for more meetings. TBW and I decided to head out and find the Historical Society Museum.

Getting to the Historical Society was simple enough. But we had no idea of the adventure we'd face. We started up the main street and decided to catch one of the free trolleys instead of walking. We caught the "red triangle" and we got off at the Water Tower, which the northern most point of that trolley's loop.** We checked the signs and had to catch the "purple diamond" to get up to the Historical Society.

TBW: "Hi. When should the purple diamond trolley get here?"

Trolley Stop Guy (TSG): "In about 20 minutes."

Me: "Why don't we head over to that Border's Books across the street and wash up?"

TBW: "Good idea."

We walked into the book store. Found the facilities. Did our business (you know what I mean). And walked out of the book store.

It was dark. So dark that cars had their lights on! We immediately jetted back to the trolley stop.

WHAT THE HELL?

Me: "What happened? It got so dark!"

TSG: "There's a storm a-comin'."

TBW: "But it was just sunny less than 5 minutes ago!"

TSG: "Looks like it's comin' fast."

Me: "Is that normal?"

TSG: "Let me tell ya. When that storm hits, I ain't gonna be standing here. I'm headed over there." [pointing to the covered entry of a hotel across the street]

Not 2 minutes after that conversation....CRACK! BOOM!

There was thunder and lightening. Then the rain came down. And then it came fast.

We all ended up getting wet. TBW and I even tried to flag down a taxi after about 5 minutes. But all the taxis were taken. Most likely by locals. Locals who KNEW that the downpour was going to happen. Thankfully, the purple diamond trolley rounded the corner in another 2 minutes. We ran onto it. Soaking wet. But laughing.

Our laughter didn't last long because the humid conditions plus the rain created a greenhouse effect inside that trolley. They had zipped up all the side openings with those plastic shields. It was STUFFY. Luckily, we happened to sit right at the front of the zipped up section. I unzipped the plastic about 2 feet to let some air in. As the trolley started to move, there was an audible sigh of relief as the cooler air began to circulate through the back of the trolley. After another 5 minutes or so, the rain had stopped. We were able to open up the plastic and all was well.

TBW and I did make it to the Historical Society Museum. It was a bit disappointing. We were hoping to see more about the history of the city. The riots. The great fire. The architectural build-up after the fire. But there was maybe one blurb on each of these things.

We caught the purple diamond to get back. But we did make one unexpected stop. Navy Pier. It was a festive place. What's great is that it's right along the water so they get a good breeze. The ferris wheel was going. There were food stands everywhere. They even have an IMAX theater in there! We didn't stay long though. We knew our husbands would be finished for the day, so we headed back. Let me say that if I'm heading to Navy Pier the next time I'm in town!

** Each of the various color/shape coded trolleys has its own loop. There are actually 4 trolley loops that intersect each other. This way folks can use the free trolley system to head north/south or east/west.