Breakfast 8am – 10:00am At your leisure
*Optional: Church – 8:15am or 9:30am Catholic Service at Holy Name Catholic Cathedral[735 North State Street, Chicago, IL] Other services can be arranged.
No one went. Sorry parents.
10:45am – Depart hotel for Science and Industry Museum
11:00am – 3:00pm Explore Science and Industry Museum.
We arrived at the Science Museum a little bit early, so we decided a nice picture in front would be the best idea. Mr. Jackson prompted the students that, since we are in front of a science museum, look smart. Jose Juan's response, how do I look smart without looking constipated? I laughed really hard. So...with their smart faces on, they all posed.
One of the most exciting parts of the museum was the body exhibit. We were able to play mind-relaxation games, hear our heart beats, see our veins with near infared light waves, and see pieces of our bodies in new ways. I thought the section of a thigh looked surprisingly like a steak
I would get at the grocery store. Eat up! The video is one of the cool exhibits they had in the body section that followed your movements on a big screen. It was fun to interact with other people using the program. Here's a snip-it of me looking ridiculous.
1:00pm –
Live Science Big Bang and Chemistry show
At 1pm we found our way to the main hall of the museum for a chemistry show. They set a lot of chemicals on fire and even exploded some hydrogen.
It was pretty loud, but not as loud as the mixture of hydrogen and oxygen together! It was seriously as loud as the fireworks on the 4th, but inside the building. I FELT the explosion on my pant legs and the kids felt their sweatshirts move as the explosion happened. VERY COOL.
There were a lot of things at the museum that we needed more time to explore, such as the coal mine ride, but we did see many other neat exhibits. There was a lego structure of the entire downtown Chicago area, which somehow connected, through some hills, to Seattle. Go figure. But there was an old trolley the kids found exciting, and we got to see the only German submarine in the United States! It was HUGE!!! By this time, however, the kids were completely starving and therefore didn't explore the submarine area as thoroughly as they could have. Fernando told me they were studying 'this kind of stuff in Mr. Skari's, but this isn't a history trip' so he walked right by the films about the sub. He was the most hungry. Funny how grown kids melt down just like little ones. But! Not to worry, we got some food at the museum and quickly head out to the Blue Man Group show.
3:15pm – Leave Museum and head towards the Blue Man Group
We left the museum closer to 2:45 than 3:15, which put a damper on the whole visit, but the kids were super excited to be heading off to the show that was the reason for our Chicago trip!
3:45pm – Arrive at the Blue Man
Group
We arrived at the Briar Street Theater about 20 min early and had time to hang out and get excited. The show was like nothing any of us had ever seen. Who would have thought it would be funny? But I laughed SO HARD that I cried a little bit. It was a very interactive show that kept the kids' interest for the whole 2 hours. It was easily their favorite part of the trip. Refer to individual 'video diaries' for their accounts of the show.
The show had sooooo many teaching points that I was overwhelmed. While I wasn't tearing with joy, I was noting all the ways I could point out things we have been learning in class.
Their instruments were hand-made and many had to do with tubes. We noted later the length of the tube and it's affect on the sound it produced.
There were many skits that used lazers, lights, and shadows, also on the list of studied topics.
There was a very exciting part that used toilet paper, but I won't give that away in case any of you reading this are going to see the show. It was a highlight, that's for sure. After the show the blue men were out front to take pictures, but the whole after-production closed down quickly and I never got a group shot!!! But here's a couple individual pictures of Mr. Jackson and Jose Juan.
4:00pm – 5:45pm – Blue Man Group Show
6:00pm – Dinner near the show
Well...being that we ate about 3 hours prior to this, we weren't hungry when the show was over. Mr. Jackson and I talked it over before the show, and decided that going to China-town
might be something the kids would enjoy. Teresa, Carmen, and Fernando brought their own chopsticks with them on the trip, so we figured it was a given that they would be interested in going. We won the group over and headed back to the Red line for the journey south. The kids were really excited upon arrival in Chinatown and immediately started souvenir shopping. I'm guessing the most money was spent during this 45 minutes than any other time on the trip!! Many good purchases were made, but nothing beat David's dragon knife-letter opener. 'Hey TSA worker, there's no reason I shouldn't fly! It's just a dragon sword that opens MAIL! No worries.' :) It was pretty cool looking though.
After shopping we headed to a nearby chinese restaurant. Knowing how crazy the twins and fernando were about China-town, I assumed they had eaten chinese food before. Turns out Mr. J and I were the only ones who had had it before....well, once we ruled out Panda Express as 'having had chinese before'. So we ordered some apps for the group and had a grand time. I think this was the best meal we had together, and not just for the food, but more the atomosphere. Once David and Vince got past the idea that we were actually going to eat there for dinner, everyone settled in and laughed a lot. Jose Juan ordered a hot plate and got a wok-seafood soup dish with an open flame under it. I think it confused him. He told us he saw hot plate and thought 'fajitas'. :) This was also when he told us that he should be careful with the shrimp. It took us a little while, but we got him to tell us the meaning of this comment. I assumed at first flatulence was the culprit, but apparently, according to his dad, shrimp gets a person sexually aroused! Who knew?! I never corrected him, telling him I never heard this. I was laughing too hard....slightly embarrassed, as the boys around him all shifted their chairs a little further away from him.
So many funny things happened that night that I could probably not list them all but here are a couple more. Carmen was really excited by the fact that everyone was using chopsticks, even Ileana! We laughed. I was telling the kids about the fruit smoothies with the boba pearls in them (tapioca?) and Fernando whips his head around (he was sitting to my right) and says 'smooooooooooothies????!!!!' with the longest noodle hanging out of his mouth. I almost fell out of my chair. In fact, I kept re-living this moment, and laughed so hard that I had to remove myself from the table temporarily. They all made fun of me. Well deserved I'm sure.
After leaving the restaurant, we really did shove more food into our bellies by getting those smoothies. I drank about 1/4th of the thing, but did make everyone try a boba. It was clear who didn't like them and who did. Fernando did not, and got a smoothie without them. He ended up spilling the smoothie on his jacket and you can see in the picture that he's still not happy about it. Cracks me up.
8:00pm – 10:00pm – Pack and be ready to leave the next day.
We finished dinner late, later than we thought, so the rest of the evening was spend traveling back to the hotel and then packing our bags!
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