Noah & Melissa

Now 7, Noah was overdue for his first visit to Chicago, and arrived for a weekend of fun, bringing his mum along for the ride. We started off the day with a little work experience where Noah quickly located the pile of surplus Halloween candy.

We then headed downtown to the Shedd Aquarium where the fish always seem to be upstaged by the other aquatic life. Favorites this time included this colorful snake and friendly Beluga whales who obligingly popped their heads to say hello. Who would have thought that they change the shape of their forehead to make different sounds?

We secured seats early for the new Fantasea show in the oceanarium which meant a long wait for the show to start... While Noah enjoyed the dolphin tricks, most of our party thought it was quite overproduced.

We concluded our kid-friendly day in Chicago with a visit to the Lego store on Michigan Ave.

X7b-user

I scarcely landed in Chicago before taking off again for Long Island. We're visiting Jon at the NSLS to help him break in his oh-so-shiny new detector.

Les Egouts de Paris

Having visited Paris on several previous occasions, an alternative perspective of this beautiful city's history seemed like a good idea. And so we ended up in the Paris Sewer museum - a series of displays in underground tunnels with only metal grates between the soles of your shoes and the running effluent.
The guide book's description as "oderiferous" was accurate.

(Free) Museum Sunday

Entry to the big Parisian museums is free on the first Sunday of the month, i.e. today. Despite throwing the doors open, the entry queues were still long... something to do with the rainy weather no doubt.