Making the Most of This Chicago Visit

This is my first time visiting Chicago, so I wanted to take a little time, away from Greenbuild and explore a bit. On the suggestion of a friend I chose to visit the Field Museum, my friend thought I would be able to make my way through the museum in about two hours; unfortunately I only had a little over an hour. Luckily the museum—which usually runs about $25 per person—held a "free day" today. I walked up the marble stairs, pausing to admire the impressive view of downtown Chicago and the waterfront, and entered into the massive atrium, where I discovered Sue, a T. Rex skeleton named Sue. According to their website The Field Museum's purpose is the "accumulation and dissemination of knowledge, and the preservation and exhibition of objects illustrating art, archaeology, science and history"—and it certainly delivers. With innovative and interactive exhibits throughout, the museum has done an excellent job of varrieing their exhibits.

The Field Museum houses one of the nation's largest collections of mammals, with much of the collection on display and the rest tucked away in the research sections of the museum. It is interesting to see so many species of animals, many extinct, all in one place. These exhibits, broken up by location are mildly unsettling when put in the context of global climate change—many species around the world are endangered now and if climate change continues at its current pace this list will only grow.

A few things I was REALLY impressed by:

• there is an Alaskan Brown Bear on display, positioned on its hind legs, at more than 9 feet tall it is quite a site!
• the second floor houses a "DNA Lab"—this interactive (kid friendly) exhibit integrates an actual DNA lab, the scientist are the ones on display here, working behind glass partitions. The children running around this exhibit seemed thoroughly enthralled in the scientists' work—offering a unique perspective in a museum.
• the sheer magnitude and architecture of the building certainly impressed me, you can see in the image some of the beautiful architecture.
• on my way out I noticed a smaller room, on the second floor which turned out to be the Grainger Hall of Gems. I'm so happy I stopped in here—the collection of gems, some raw and some polished encompassed many I had never heard of.

I didn't have a focus for my visit, so I just wandered, trying to see everything and going in the order of whichever thing caught my eye first. Since I had under an hour and a half I'm sorry to say I missed the Climate Change exhibt, which is likely the most relevant to the Greenbuild crowd. So if you're at Greenbuild you should try and make it to the Field Museum, it's just a mile or so walk from McCormick Place and you can walk along the bike path which runs adjacent to Lake Michigan.