Monolith of a building, the Shedd is. 

And unless I'm very much mistaken, the nearest parking isn't near at all.  I cruised around obscure parkways for some time before stumbling upon parking underneath Soldier Field which is smack dab next to the row of museums (The Field Museum, the Planetarium and the Shedd).  I ended up walking a quarter of mile with my kiddos and got in a little exercise! Fortunately, it was glorious weather!

Overall, the whole day was glorious because a friend of ours had free tickets waiting for us inside the doors! All we paid for was parking. Thank you, Andrea! We even had tickets for the dolphin show! Of which I was unable to get a single good picture. Partly camera, partly holding a squirmy Dorien.

There was a large jellyfish exhibit. Pretty squishies....

Unfortunately my camera wasn't cooperating with me and everything took ten hours to photograph resulting in blurred or "action" shots. Unintentional action shots.  Behind my happy kids is a Caribbean exhibit teeming with fascinating under-water creatures. Turtles, fish, moray eels, coral...you name it, we saw it.

Huge sea turtle zooming in to say hello! 

(Did you know turtles are things that swim underwater? The ones that live above the water are turtoises).

In honor of Lake Michigan, there was a wing dedicated to life around the Lake. Complete with a tent, pretend cooking area and canoe.

Right around the moment this picture was taken, black-shirted employees began walking rapidly around the different exhibits urging everyone to move outside for a fire drill. Now, that was something I've never experienced at a museum! 

Back behind the yellow tape, everyone!!!

While I heard some moms grumbling about just getting there and "this better not take very long" and "I may ask for my money back!", our crew was content to sit in the pretty green grass, enjoy the glorious fall foliage, cool temperatures and people-watch. 

Just riding out the Fire Drill.

August makes sure Dorien doesn't crawl too far away. I think Dorien was more interested in trying to eat the blades of grass than get away.

I love this face. Priceless.

Brooklyn, my darling girl. Such a big helper. Enthusiastic, lively, friendly, dramatic, full of life. Wouldn't trade her for anything.

Oh, and I should add that my daughter happens to be obsessed with sharks right now.  Mildly terrified of them, but also fascinated in a "they scare me but I can't stop looking" kind of way. She was able to see the real thing at the Shedd. It rocked her world.