Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Kuwait City, Kuwait on March 31st.

Friday, May 11, 2012

The Field Museum of Natural History

First of all, I have to qualify this by saying that it was only in March that we visited world class museums in Mexico City. Not to say that the Field Museum isn't world class, it's just that I think we are "all museumed out"!

We did visit some interesting displays, and there were some we weren't so impressed with. We weren't issued the pass for the extras, so can't comment on them. But once again, there are "extras" and we don't think there should be. But that's just us. There's the $15 basic admission, and then another $7 to see one extra attraction, or the $29 All Access Pass.

What we were fascinated by was the dinosaur, fossil, and skeleton exhibits. Probably the best we've seen in the world, including the largest and best preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex specimen ever found.

"Sue" is approximately 66 million years old!

The whole story behind Sue is pretty interesting, but rather than re-tell it here I'll just provide a link... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_(dinosaur)

Some big teeth you have there Sue!

The skeleton exhibits were pretty interesting.

But I didn't get the attraction to the "Animals" exhibit. A whole room full of stuffed animals. Wouldn't you just go to a zoo? Speaking of which, the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago is free. So why have this huge display of stuffed animals?


More stuffed animals.

And even more.

So at the end of the display, there was a little sign explaining that many of these stuffed animals go back to the zoo's early days and that back then people couldn't see animals like this because there was no television. Still, they had zoo's didn't they? Sorry, I thought this display was kind of amateurish and it seemed like you were in a Cabella's store. In fact, thinking back, the displays at Cabella's is better! Seemed like they said to themselves, "well, we have them and we don't know what to do with them so we might as well put them on display".

The main hall is fairly impressive.

And so are the rest of the dinosaurs!

There was some different looking animals living back then!

We didn't visit some of the other exhibits. The World of Birds didn't interest us, although for others this may be a main attraction. And same with Plants of the World. So different things will obviously interest different people.

Value for $15? Worth it if you haven't been to a museum for a long time, or if you really like museums. But if you've been to another world class museum recently, you may be able to find better use for your time.

BEAUTIFUL day today in Chicago! Sunny and 75F (23C).

3 comments:

  1. The thing I always remember from that museum is the smell of the mummy display in the downstairs area. I wasn't into dinosaurs much as a kid. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. butterbean carpenterMay 11, 2012 at 5:06 PM

    Howdy R&K,
    Joyce has a friend who was a curator at the FIELD and took her ALL thru it.. As an archaeologist and anthropologist she was really thrilled; I just glad I didn't have to go!!! Thanx, for the trip..

    ReplyDelete
  3. hey I am not 66 million years old!..only 52 soon to be 53..geesh!!..thanks for the great tour!!..sure looks like the two of you are enjoying yourselves!

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