Chicago Sightseeing, Days 1 & 2

Jim and Arlene got in town Thursday night and we have spent the last 2 days in Chicago. The first day we rode the train into town and caught a bus to the Museum Campus. We went to the Shedd Aquarium where we saw lots of animals, a 4-D showing of Planet Earth and the dolphin show, "Fantasea." Tori got scared during the Planet Earth movie and Mike was kind enough to take her out. 4-D means that in addition to watching the movie with the 3-D glasses you get the extra special effects like water splashing on you and wind blowing etc. Tori lost it when the shark attacked a seal and it felt like it was attacking you. We ate lunch outside overlooking Lake Michigan. Tori had 2 bags of cheetos for lunch. (gotta love it.) I thought the dolphin show was awesome but it was no Sea World. It focused more on special effects. The animals involved were a sea lion, dolphins and a hawk. They "picked" a girl from the audience to participate in the show but it was obvious she knew what she was doing. In addition to her hair and face being perfectly made up she had no qualms about flying through the air in a boat and standing right next to the water to feed the fish. She also curtsied and waved throughout the show.
After the Aquarium we took a water taxi to Navy Pier where we got on an Architecture Boat Tour. It was super hot and by this time the kids were getting restless. Tori and Ryan slept on the boat. I loved hearing about all the buildings in Chicago but what was really cool was that they were shooting the new Transfomers movie on the river so we got to see some of the filming.
Today we drove downtown instead of riding the train. We started off at the Hancock Observatory Tower which I liked much better than the Sears Tower. The views were amazing. After that we went back to the Museum Campus and went to the Adler Planeterium. This time we opted for a Sesame Street movie instead of the 4-D. Tori loved it. Later in the day we watched the "Night in the Sky" movie which was a traditional planeterium experience. There were lots of hands on activities for the kids and they had a really good time. Outside of the Planeterium we saw some beautiful views of Lake Michigan and also had our first experience on a Lake Michigan beach. It looked just like the gulf. Awesome! I can't believe I've waited this long to explore Chicago!