Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
exhibits allow hands-on interaction, and there are special activities for kids, such
as making parchment from living papyrus plants.
Next to the Egypt exhibit you'll find
Underground Adventure,
a “total
immersion environment” populated by giant robotic earwigs, centipedes, wolf
spiders, and other subterranean critters. The Disneyesque exhibit is a big hit
with kids, but—annoyingly—requires an extra admission charge ($5 on top of
regular admission for adults, $2 for kids). While you're downstairs, plug a dol-
lar bill into one of the old-fashioned wax-molding machines and watch as your
very own red T-Rex or green brontosaurus is shaped in front of your eyes. Kids
get a thrill out of taking home their very own Field Museum dino.
The “peoples of the world” exhibits are not only mind-opening, they're also
great fun.
Traveling the Pacific
is hidden up on the second floor, but it's defi-
nitely worth a stop. Hundreds of artifacts from the museum's oceanic collection
re-create scenes of island life in the South Pacific. (There's even a full-scale
model of a Maori meeting house.)
Africa,
an assemblage of African artifacts and
provocative, interactive multimedia presentations, takes viewers to Senegal, to a
Cameroon palace, to the savanna and its wildlife, and on a “virtual” journey
aboard a slave ship to the Americas. Native Chicagoans will quickly name two
more signature highlights: the taxidermied bodies of
Bushman
(a legendary
lowland gorilla who made international headlines while at the city's Lincoln Park
Zoo) and the
Man-Eating Lions of Tsavo.
(The pair of male lions who
munched nearly 140 British railway workers constructing a bridge in East Africa
in 1898; their story is featured in the film
The Ghost and the Darkness.
)
The museum hosts special traveling exhibits (recent blockbusters included
shows on Cleopatra and the jewels of Russia), as well as numerous lectures, book
signings, multiethnic musical and dance performances, storytelling events, and
family activity days throughout the year. The Corner Bakery cafe, located just
off the main hall, serves fare that's a cut above the usual museum victuals. (To
skip the lunchtime lines, pick up one of the premade salads or sandwiches and
head for the cash register.) Families also flock to the McDonald's on the lower
level. Allow about 3 hours to see it all.
Roosevelt Rd. and Lake Shore Dr.
&
312/922-9410
or 312/341-9299 TDD (for hearing-impaired callers).
www.fieldmuseum.org. Admission $10 adults; $7 seniors and students with ID; $5 children 3-11; free for teach-
ers, armed-forces personnel in uniform, and children 2 and under. Free admission Mon-Tues mid-Sept to Feb
(except the last 2 weeks of Dec). Open daily 9am-5pm. Closed Dec 25 and Jan 1. Bus: 6, 10, 12, 130, or 146.
Hamill Family Play Zoo
All ages.
Located within Chicago's largest
zoo, the Brookfield Zoo (located in west suburban Brookfield), the Hamill Fam-
ily Play Zoo lets kids talk to the animals in an up-close and personal way. In fact,
the kids' zoo was designed to help kids, from infants to age 10, develop feelings
of kinship with the natural world. Children can touch domesticated animals,
help care for animals, search for insects under logs, watch zoo keepers prepare
animal food, pretend to be a veterinarian, plant seeds, build feeders, and more.
You'll find 300 individual animals from 58 species here, and specially trained
staff is on hand to help make the most of your visit.
Other Brookfield Zoo exhibits let kids encounter bathing hippos and laugh
at the antics of the orangutans. In total, the Brookfield Zoo is spread over 216
acres with 2,700 animals in residence. Kid favorites are Siberian tigers, snow
leopards, giraffes, green sea turtles, and baboons. All the animals live in natura-
listic environments that allow them to live side-by-side with other inhabitants of
their regions (see the Brookfield Zoo review in the “Zoos” section later in this
chapter for more information).
