Staycation - Day One

Vince and I knew we needed to take a vacation before the harriedness of the fall began, and so we decided to take Thursday and Friday off of work and have some fun. We originally thought about going up to Door County in Wisconsin and having a few days away. But as the time approached, we decided instead to stay in Chicago and enjoy some sights that we've been meaning to do.

So, here we are. It's day one of our staycation! As long as I have lived in Chicago, I had never been to the Field Museum. For a while now, we have seen signs for the Pirate exhibit they have, and we've wanted to go. That's just what we did today. We slept in and then headed down to the museum campus to check in with the pirates.

The exhibit was excellent, and we learned a lot about this one particular pirate ship, the Whydah. We also learned interesting facts like....pirates never really buried their treasure. In fact, they rarely held onto their profits for very long at all. There was always good rum and women to spend it on. Also, we learned that when the pirates took over a new ship, they always asked the crew whether the captain was kind or cruel. If they said he was kind, the captain often received a small ship and was set free. If the crew thought him cruel, the captain was often beaten and tortured, usually resulting in his death. This should be a warning to all you cruel captains out there!

We got to see Sue, of course. For those of you who aren't familiar, Sue is largest complete T-Rex skeleton found in the world. And she was found right here in the US. Pretty impressive.

The most interesting part of my day happened when we were entering the "Our Evolving World" section of the museum. We were walking in when a boy (about 8) and a girl (about 10) rushed in ahead of us. We heard the grandmother yell from behind, "Oh, you don't want to go in there." "Yes, I do," yelled back the boy. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Because we don't believe in that bullshit."

Wow....did that just happen? "We don't believe in that bullshit"?!? I was taken aback by this response. I guess it's been quite a while since I've heard such a compelling argument against evolution, but there it was...right in the heart of the Field Museum. And I have to say, her words followed me for the next hour as we meandered our way through our evolving world.

I could not stop thinking about her. I kept thinking to myself, "how do you explain...if not for evolution?" And I would frequently bother Vince with similar quandaries. Until finally, he explained it all to me. "God didn't create the dinosaurs," he explained. "God created fossils."

Well, doesn't that just explain it all!