Dozing with the Dinos 2020

This year was the final time my son was able to participate in the annual Dozing with the Dinos event at the Field Museum. The event is for kids age 6-12 and their adults, but my son will turn thirteen at the end of May. Although I've enjoyed going behind the scenes at the Field Museum, I will not miss the poor sleeping conditions.

Saturday afternoon, Alex and I took the Metra downtown to connect with my husband.Since my husband works on Saturdays, it's easier for us to do this instead of making him drive back home to pick us up before we go to the museum. We ate dinner, then drove to the museum. We got there early, which made check-in easier and allowed us to pick a prime spot in the evolution exhibit.

After orientation, we had a special behind-the-scenes tour of the lab where they prepare fish specimens for study. We don't get to choose in advance which tour we take. We hadn't been in this part of the museum before, and since Alex likes fishing, this was a good match for us. We got to see many specimens prepared in different ways. Some were preserved in formaldehyde, while others were treated with special stains to make different parts of their bodies visible. We saw several sharks, a puffer fish, and my favorite, a coelacanth.

After snack time and buying a few souvenirs, we explored the museum, both with and without flashlights. By the time we were done, we were so exhausted we went straight to bed. Unfortunately, our air mattresses all had leaks, despite my attempts to patch them. My mattress was so bad I just deflated it completely instead of having to deal with a rocking mattress. At least it was ready to pack in the morning. We had breakfast, then left. We may not able to sleep over again, but we'll always have the memories.