Chicago Trip

This morning started with a 7 AM wake up call. Not good when you went to bed 4 hours beforehand, but as my family will tell you.. "Don't worry, she'll get her sleep." It's our family joke to see how far we go before I fall asleep.

Anyway we left home at 7:30 and was to pick up Aaron around 8. Dad wanted to fill the tank up in K. So, as soon as we get there, my cell phone rings.... "Are you guys here yet?" I could hear the excitement in Aaron's voice. I explained about the gas, and then he asked "Did Austin come with you guys?" When I said yes, he got really excited and said "Awesome, this is going to be so much fun."
When we got there, Aaron was like a little kid excited about Christmas. Chris told us that he's been so excited for a week or so. He really is a funny guy when he's in a really good mood.

With a lot of laughing, teasing each other, and sleeping (on my part) we got to Chicago.. Oh, and that's not mentioning the groans from Austin and I (nor my eye rolling) during dad's skunk song... YES, Ashley, dad sang his skunk song for Aaron. We tried to talk him out of it, but he just HAD to sing it for him. Oh, and the way Aaron laughed, I think dad finally found someone that actually LIKES his song.

So, we get to the museum, and our tour through the Body Worlds 2 exhibit wasn't for another 2 hours.

So, we went looking through the museum, At one point we found computers where you can email free postcard emails to people. AARON got the wonderful idea to send one to Ashley. Even though he typed in from The M.... It's actually HIS work. So, you have him to thank for the email postcard. :) Yes, Ashley, you were very missed.

Then came the exhibit of the lifetime... Aaron asked me if I had told mom or dad what it was about. I said no, and he laughed really hard. I don't know what dad thought it was going to be, but by the time we were in line to go in, he was really hesitant. Aaron, compared this exhibit to a roller coaster ride... "Can't wait to go." We walked in and it was pretty "tame" at first. It showed a skull, and an infant's skull. Then it eventually had the bodies....
At first it made me cringe, but after a while it was pretty interesting. The skin was off the bodies, and some had the muscles showing, others had the body standing or sitting with it sliced vertically. All the bodies were posed in every day situations. Stretching, bending, kicking a ball, etc.. It wasn't long before I went past the "These are dead people" thinking to "WOW, I didn't know the muscles in my back pull like that when I bend.

I think the most "eye opening" was the lungs. They had a set of healthy lungs, then a set of smoker's lungs, and then the coal miner's lungs. (Coal miner's lungs were tons worse by the way.) Then hanging on the wall behind the lungs was a container they made to look like a cigarette carton. It was over half full of cigarette packs that people threw away after looking at the lungs. They were urging people to take an oath to stop smoking.

The saddest body was the woman who was 5 months pregnant. I found it interesting how protected the baby really is in a mother's womb. You had to really look to see it. However, it is sad to think that both mom and baby died.

Then they had a "recruiting" area where you can sign up to be a donor. You can donate your body to be exhibited. I was teasing my mom about donating my body, and she said "I'll hide it first."

They had a gift shop where Aaron found a couple books he wanted. One which had over 300 pictures of EVERY single exhibit (even the bodies that was touring with the other 2 groups) was what I bought him as a birthday gift. He read it all the way home. The other book is the life story of the guy that started this.

Here's the link to official website:
http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/gunther_von_hagens/life.html

After going through the exhibit, we headed home. All in all it was a very fun day.