April 15 06

Ahh... Its the wekend again. I have called a stop to shopping after being informed of a S$1500 bill that came from my credit card. Its time to do something else... cheap. I bought a $49.90 city pass that will bring me to see 5 attractions: Shedd Aquarium, Adler Planatorium, Science Museum, Field Museum and the John Hancock Observatory which I went before liao.

Today I follow my colleague with his wife who has been going to Chicago for the previous weekends. They have been taking the train to avoid the expensive parking cost in Chicago. Luckily, I had another colleague for company, who just reached 2 days before from the Software department.

We met at 6.45am and proceeded to buy Macdonalds Breakfast. We packet out as the train journey will be approx. 1hr, So we will have plenty of time to eat. Really well thought out... pros. We then reached the train station to catch the 7.21 train.
At this point I was thinking of uploading some train photos that I took.... But i cant find it. Weird.... I thought i took some pics... oh well.

We bought the weekend train pass for USD$5 from the train conductor. It was a big burly guy. And yes, I couldnt find the pictures. I guess today im "Camera off".
And so... we rest in the train til we reached Chicago.

We bought the 1 day visitor pass at the train station which entitles us to 1 day unlimited bus rides on CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) bus operator. Heres the pic of the card:




Then I followed my colleague couple to the bus stop which we took the bus to the destination, Shedd Aquarium. And here is it!



The picture on top is actually a picture taken on 29 April. That day really took quite little picture. So went back to take a picture of it again.

Took the picture of the Iguana below while its resting. If you look carefully, the iguana is resting his head on a separate piece of rock. So funny.



The spider crab looks awesome right? Got 1 of them is the alaskan king crab which I ate in Bob chin... but i cant remember which is which.



And they have my favourite penguins too! HOHO



We went to watch the dolphin show. The scenery from there is very nice. Attached is the pic with the dolphin doing the synchronised jumping out of the pool. At the background can you see the round round thing? Its the planetorium. And the sea outside is actually Lake Michigan.



Then we went to eat. The view from there also not too bad. Heres the view!



We rushed through the place till around 2pm and then went off to the next destination, Science and Industry Museum. We have to change 1 bus to get there cause its kind of far away. So while waiting at he bus stop, I took a pic at the opp one:



At the science museum, there is this:



Awesome rite? Its actually a Submarine. It has a long history behind this. During the world war 2, this is the only submarine or called U-boat at that time that the Allies captured from Germany. It is from this U-boat, that they can learn from Germany about their technology and thus help on the war. After the war, they wanted to throw this somewhere so Chicago Museum too it. And they transported it all the way to Inland of chicago beside the Museum and build a extension to house it. Powerful man.... A preserved U-boat from World war 2.

We then went on to look at other stuff in the Museum. When viewing, suddenly this Ang Mo approached us and say that he has 4 tickets to the Da Vinci Exhibition which he has no use for, and he gave them to us. The exhibition is also in the Museum but need to buy tickets to enter at USD$10 each. Really lucky! We rushed down to catch the exhibit. But we had to wait a while... then i thought of giving to another person too. Got 2 extra anyway. So i approached 2 ang mo to ask them but they brushed me aside quickly and walked away as if i am begging them to buy the ticket from me. Damn... so much for being a nice guy. I threw the tickets away, fed up. But the exhibit is nice! they but many artifacts that da Vinci once build or sketched. Very interesting... its just a pity the museum is closing and we have to rushed through the exhibit. Darn.

Then we went out to wait for a bus which didnt come eventually. We waited for like 30min in the freezing bus stop and it didnt come. It is actually not suppose to operate till so late but the bus sto got paste a poster saying that the bus has extended timing, as if man. We then walked to another side of the block to catch a bus for dinner.

We went to a bistro to eat, just random go in. So heres the food:



I cant remember what i ate actually. But i did order a side dish of vegetables.



Couldnt tell whats the picture above rite. Its mixed vegetables american style. So much for healthy living.

After the meal, we then went to catch the 10.21pm train back to Libertyville. At at the toliet there I saw something special!





Its a rotating plastic bag on the toliet seat. Just press the red button and the plastic bag will rotate so you can always have a clean seat. Happening man....

This is really a long entry.... took like 2 hrs to finish it in between talking on skype and MSN. zzz time