Field Museum of Natural History

Almost forgot about this. The same day that I went to the Shedd, I also popped into the Field. Honestly, I prefer the Shedd even though it is smaller and more crowded. I guess I just prefer looking at living things instead of dead things.

Photography at both places was somewhat difficult due to the low light level, the crowds, panes of glass in between me and the subject, the museum's rule against flashes (though not many people obeyed that one), and sometimes my lack of interest. Kept it casual and didn't spend much time on it, but even then it required a bit of patience, a steady hand, and a tolerant girlfriend.


Standard snap of the Stanley Great Hall. Probably a billion people have taken this exact picture. I really wasn't all that impressed, but oh well. Everyone around here knows about Sue, the Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton on display in front. However, not many people are too familiar with that poor old elephant a little further down, including me. I walked right by it.


The Asian exhibits were some of the first things we looked at. Here is a Buddhist bell. It was hard to resist hitting this thing.


And here is a large Chinese drum, it was almost four feet across, bad ass. It was made out of metal and had really interesting grooves and markings on it too. It was even harder to resist hitting this thing. (The depth of field of my lens appears to be almost non-existent here).


We made our way to the Jade Hall, which is where this figurine resided. This exhibit was small but interesting. Interesting to me because I like jade quite a bit.  Because it keeps the ghosts away. It's science.


This photo doesn't do it justice but there was a large intricately carved jade disc, measuring about two feet across.  Really nice.


Then we looked at a house that had carvings and etchings of wooden monsters on its inside and outside walls.


Fossilized bird. When I was in Hawaii, I asked my friend Chuck if he knew what an Archaeopteryx was. He said it was a form of back handspring.  Good times.


Here's Cathy in part of a large exhibit that walks you through a crash course of the history of the Earth's flora and fauna, detailing the numerous mass extinctions that have taken place.  Really interesting stuff.