triceratops – The Bookish Mutant

Hey, everyone, I’m back from Chicago! I had SUCH a wonderful time there, and I did so many fun things there that I doubt I’ll forget. So I’ll give you the run-down of the vacation. I hope you enjoy my pictures!

DAY 1:

After arriving in Chicago and settling into our hotel room, we visited the Shedd Aquarium, which was definitely one of my favorites things we did. I’m a total geek for marine life, so…

These were the electric eels. We got to see them being fed while we were there!

A European Cuttlefish. I COULD NOT HANDLE THE CUTENESS. I LOVE CUTTLEFISH SO MUCH…

A female wolffish (or wolf eel). After seeing clips of them on documentaries for years, I was pretty psyched to see a real one.

A beautiful butterflyfish picture. I’m really surprised at how good the picture turned out.

A ribbon eel that looks like it’s perpetually screaming. It kind of reminded me of the “that’s my opINION!!!” vine.

BELUGAS! There were five of them in all, and it was such a treasure to see them.

DAY 2:

We spent the second day at the Field Museum. Definitely one of the major highlights of the trip.

“Excuthe me, thir…but where are your fathilitieth located?”

After watching *Walking with Monsters* for much of my childhood, it was pretty crazy to see a real Edaphosaurus skeleton.

Funny story…this is Daspletosaurus. But at first, I read the name on the plaque as “Despacitosaurus”. So that’s basically what I’m referring it to as now…

A pregnant stringray. Pretty stunning, if you ask me.

A short-faced bear that looks like it’s reciting Shakespeare. “To be, or not to be? That is the question…”

We also visited the traveling Antarctic Dinosaurs exhibit. This is the Cryolophosaurus. (Fingers crossed that I spelled that right…)

DAY 3:

We spent the third day at the Art Institute of Chicago. And yes, I did zoom in on that one space in that one painting in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (I can’t remember the painting’s name) a la Cameron.

Roy Lichtenstein in the Contemporart Art exhibit.

Miró. I believe this one is called “Circus Horse”.

After visiting the Dalí museum in Florida, it was really exciting to see some Dalí that I’d never seen before.

It was pretty amazing to see “The Old Guitarist” after studying Picasso in Spanish class so much last year.

DAY 4:

On the morning of day 4, we took a river architecture tour. It was all really intersting and beautiful, and I loved seeing all of the different buildings.

This was probably the highlight of the morning. “Yankee…hotel…foxtrot…”

That afternoon, we saw the live recording of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me in Millenium Park. I don’t have any pictures of this, but it was HYSTERICAL. (I swear, every single word that came out of Bobcat Goldthwait’s mouth made me die laughing…)

DAY 5:

Our last full day in Chicago consisted of a visit to the campus of the University of Chicago. Or, in other words, we visited Hogwarts. Absolutely beautiful.

Don’t tell me this isn’t Hogwarts. Don’t you dare.

We visited Powell’s books, and then spent the afternoon relaxing in the hotel room. The next morning, we flew out of Chicago and back into Denver.

So, all in all, a SPECTACULAR vacation! I hope you enjoyed all of the pictures. I’m excited to get to next week’s Book Review Tuesday, as I read a certain book in Chicago that might just be my favorite…

See you soon!

Hi, everyone!

As I said earlier, the reason I wasn’t able to make another BRT this week was due to my vacation in California. I had an AMAZING time! Figured I might as well showcase a few of my highlights from my vacation. Enjoy!

Our first stop after landing was Meltdown Comics in LA. MAN, it was such a fantastic comic shop! I’m really sad it’s closing.

But hey-at least I got a few Meltdown stickers, as well as a B.P.R.D. trade paperback (which I held up like Rafiki holding Simba in The Lion King the entire duration of the visit). I ended up reading it at least six times. Yep.

Believe it or not, this is Sequoia National Park. Not Isla Nublar.

*Jurassic Park theme blaring* *T-Rex roar*

These two were taken at the Giant Forest, which houses many giant Sequoias. They were soooo beautiful! One of the park rangers suggested that we hug one of them while we were at the park, and described it as “like hugging a wall”. As it turned out, that was fairly accurate. 😜

These were all taken by Hospital Rock, which was fairly close to the park entrance. I swear, if there’s any place on Earth (*ahem* Orbona) that’s most like the Wandering Forest, it had to be there. I honestly wouldn’tve been surprised if some of the vegetation got up and ate a bird or something.

(Psst, anyone know the way to the heart?)

General Sherman, the world’s largest tree!

Lake Hume, in King’s Canyon National Park.

On a far weirder note…this monstrosity was in this tiny, sketchy town near Sequoia. The only reason we could think of to construct such a thing was to scare off them ‘squatches.

Who knows.

We visited the NHMLA after our visit to Sequoia. I had an amazing time, and I enjoyed a bit of geeking out and childhood nostalgia. Here we have the skulls of an Einiosaurus, Styracosaurous, and Triceratops.

SQUAAAAAAAAWK!

I forget what the thing on the left is, but whatever it is, it CRACKS ME UP. (Also, that poor lil Hyracotherium is in for a big surprise…)

“REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!”

Pakicetus, one of the first whale ancestors. I kinda had a mental freakout when I saw this guy, as I grew up watching waaaaaay too much Walking with Prehistoric Beasts. (Okay, technically the one they have is Ambulocetus, which evolved some time later, but you get the idea.)