Toot-ahnk-AMOON

Who knew I had been pronouncing his name wrong all these years! The exhibit at the Chicago Field Museum was awesome! We got in at about 8:00 and were in that exhibit alone until around 11:00. The audio tour was fantastic (narrated by Omar Sharif)! Evie just about exploded with excitement as she saw her books and research come to life. She was calling out details and the names of things, telling stories about the gods/goddesses, sketching things, asking questions, leading us around saying things like "Daddy! Come here! It is a mini-Senet board for use in the afterlife!" A nice old lady commented "Look at that! A real scholar!"

We visited the rest of the Ancient Egypt exhibits at the museum and then after lunch we went through the Evolving Planet exhibit. I am developing a class/work group regarding the story of evolution from the Big Bang to now so I had a real interest in how this museum chose to tell the story. I had two main problems with it.

#1 A BIG disclaimer at the begging about how this is a theory, the most well evidenced, but a theory nonetheless. Now, it is a theory but so is most archaeological speculation about past people for example--does anyone ever mention that those are just theories? With creationism being de rigeur in Kansas, what's next?

#2 Scott pointed out that many displays used words like "engineered" and "designed." As in "The Triceratops' fringe was engineered to protect its neck." Who did the engineering and designing? I thought this was evolution!?!

Our hotel was swank and gorgeous. We went out for pizza and had leftovers. We were all struck by the number of people who were homeless. We gave our leftovers to a man who needed them. We gave lots of money to lots of people living on the streets. We were blessed many times, Evie and I cried.

Just barely 24 hours away from home--all of it well lived!