For years, I have dreamed of visiting Chicago and spending the day in
The Shedd Aquarium. I never really thought it would come to fruition but I continued to dream. This summer my dream came true when our family drove through Chicago on our way to a preacher's conference in the Detroit area. It was just as amazing as I thought it would be and even though we spent 6 hours there, I could go back again.
The Shedd Aquarium is located on the beautiful shores of Lake Michigan. It is the largest indoor aquarium in the world, with more than 8000 aquatic animals. Depending on when you go, there are always special exhibits. Our family had the opportunity to see the Jellies and to participate in the new Stingray Touch.
When you decide to visit the Aquarium, the first thing I recommend doing is deciding what times you would like to be there and which exhibits you want to see. Our family decided to buy the All-Access pas
s which allowed us to do everything The Shedd has to offer including one 4-D show and the aquatic show. If you are not a resident of Illinois and do not qualify for their free days, buy your tickets in advance so that you can pass the great lines. We found the lines to be quite long at 9:30 am and were very thankful that we could get our tickets at Will-Call.
If you do not want to pay $19 for parking, get there around 9 and you either park in the Adler lot for $11 (before 9:30; after 9:30, it goes up $19) or you can park on the street for about $14 or $2 an hour. The street parking fills up quickly but it is the closest to The Shedd.
If you have small children and think you will need a
stroller at all, bring it! It is a lot of walking and while I used my
Ergo for Abigail most of the time, Gabriel used it quite a bit. We brought our own lunch which you can eat in two places. One is a lunchroom near the gift shops on the main level or you can eat by the dolphins in Polar Play Zone. (Go eat in Polar Play Zone - you can watch the Aquatic Show underground while you eat. It is amazing and relaxing.)
If you chose to bring your lunch and carry extra things with you, you will find lockers on both the main level and the 2nd level. This was totally worth the $.75 we paid to store our stuff. Also bring your own water bottles because you can use the water fountains to fill your water bottles. They have a special spout to fill water bottles and it even worked for sippy cups.
The Shedd Aquarium is expensive to get into but you can certainly lower your costs by not spending any additional money while there. The food options we saw weren't even that great. Bringing our lunch and carrying water were great choices for our family.
Our first stop was the Stingray Touch exhibit. The animals are beautiful and it was fun to be able to touch them. Our little ones were a little afraid to feel them but they loved standing there watching these graceful animals glide through the water.
The Jellies were another extra exhibit that everyone enjoyed. You can't touch them but watching them move is amazing. What amazing creatures.
My favorite exhibit were the Beluga Whales. If you follow me on Instagram, you would have seen me post that I would want the diver's job. Both my husband and I agreed that we could stand and watch these stunning whales swim all day long. They are just so peaceful.
The Aquatic Show was also another highlight of our trip. If you plan to visit the show, the doors open 30 minutes early. If you want a good seat, get there when it opens. We noticed that the whole seating was full 20 minutes before the show. We sat on the first row and we loved it because the Penguins walk across the floor during the show and you are so close to them. We would recommend that you sit on the right hand side so that you get a full view of the penguins as the left hand side doesn't get as good a view.
If you are wondering if babies will have a good time, Abigail absolutely loved it. At 15 months old, she was enthralled with everything she saw. She would cry every time we left the fish tanks. I honestly think she would have sat there all day. Like I said before, I wore her in my Ergo and this allowed her to see better and get more involved with all that was going on around her.
Our kids' favorite exhibit was the Polar Play Zone. Penguins, submarines, slides, water tables, and even the ability to touch Starfish wowed them and kept them entertained for quite some time. We left far before they were ready to leave. The only caveat with the water tables is if you have a little one who loves to splash, you might want to save this for last as we left with a very wet, dripping Abigail.
I honestly could talk about
The Shedd for hours. It was definitely worth the investment of money and will not be something our family forgets any time soon.
This post was submitted by ErgoMama Rachael Coe as part of our Summer Travel Series. This post originally appeared here. Rachael is a stay at home mom to a 5 year old little girl, Gracie, a 3 year old boy, Gabriel, preemie 6 month old, Abigail, and baby #4 due summer of 2013. She blogs at Empowering Mommy, where she hopes to enable moms everywhere to have the resources and information to make purchases, plan activities, and just be the mom that they want to be.
