Shedd Aquarium

On our last day in Chicago, we spent the majority of the day at the Shedd Aquarium.  This is one of the things that I had been forward to the most and luckily it was one of the attractions in our City Passes!  The city pass deal got us an all inclusive package that included general entry, a ticket to their aquatic show, a ticket to a 4D movie AND a ticket to their special exhibit on jelly fish, how awesome is  that!  Needless to say it was a pretty awesome day.

I think this building is THE COOLEST building I have ever seen in my life, I'm being serious.  Every single detail was related to the sea, and I mean every single detail. Look at all the cool fish and wave related moldings!

From the museum complex (aquarium, natural history museum and the planetarium) you get amazing views of the lake and the city!

I thought the outside of the building was cool.  I had no idea how amazing the inside was!!  Once again, coolest building I have ever seen.  I could not stop taking pictures!  I felt like I had been transported to some magical, under the sea palace

We began with a tour of the creatures of the Amazon.

I was enthralled by this cute little guy and took way too many pictures of him.  But look at that adorable little face isn't he just the cutest little thing ever!  This hands are a little creepy though with his freakishly long talons, they kind of look like spiders ...  but I still think he is a cute lil guy.

After our trek through the Amazon, it was time for the aquatic show!  They have a pretty cool arena for their show.  The show featured their beluga whales, dolphins and a sea lion.

Guess what time it was after the show ... that's right, it was otter time!  Otters are one of my favorite animals ever.  It would be a dream come true if I could ever hold a baby otter like the poster below

After obsessing over the otter, it was movie time!  All of our tickets definitely kept us on the move!  The movie was pretty cool!  As mentioned above it was 4D, so all sorts of crazy stuff happened to us.  The movie was made up of different segments from Planet Earth.  So when we were watching the penguins in the arctic, they blasted cold air on us, when we were watching sharks catch their prey we were squirted with water in our faces, and our seats were vibrating throughout all the segments.  It was a pretty wild ride, and a fun thing to experience!

After the movie we decided to swing by the special jelly fish exhibit.  What beautiful creatures jellies are!

I thought these tiger stripped ones were pretty cool

I loved these polka dot jellies!

Pretty awesome right?  Then we went down stairs to get a look at the cute baby whales and to find the penguins!  The whales were having a great time playing with one of their toys.

Penguins!

Then we took the special elevators to go down to the coral reef and shark exhibits.  The coral reef exhibit is by far the coolest aquarium presentation I have ever seen!  I had seen pictures of it on the Internet while I was researching what I wanted to do while in Chicago and those pictures are what really really made me want to go to the aquarium!  I am so glad we made it!

This little dude, was my favorite fish I saw all day

We ended our deep sea experience with the shark tank.  Those sneaky little guys are hard to take pictures of! but are super neat.

What. An. AWESOME. Place!!! I loved every minute in this aquarium, it is such an amazing set up and gorgeous building!  I am so happy I got to go!