Great building, packed of course because it was Sunday. Very old so some of the tanks were small but beautifully set up. A brief glimpse of some sea otters in a very deep tank with what looked like long living kelp but I guess was not.
Some sad looking penguins and then some even sadder looking beluga. I had to walk away from the pool/tank.
the terrible pictures reflect the terrible lives these poor animals live
You go down two levels where the big tanks are viewed. Aquariums are such and a quandary for us both. We love them and hate them. There was a staff member asking questions so I asked the two on my mind – where does the salt water come from and why the beluga.
Salt water – it was originally brought in via tanker train. That was both uneconomic and also environmentally unfriendly so they have changed to converting the limitless water resource that is Lake Michigan into salt water.
Beluga – this was an interesting answer. They have eight! With a new born baby (born May). The baby apparently indicates they are happy. WTF? They swim around in a series of concrete tanks that would have no more volume than six Olympic pools. I was told they have plenty of room for more. WTF? They are happy because they are social creatures and they are always socialising. WTF? I asked of they were all born at the aquarium and was told apart from the original two they started with they were. Wiki tells a very sad story of the
medical history of Shedd’s beluga.
After that conversation I just wanted to get out. Unfortunately that meant we had to walk out into the torrential rain we hadn’t really planned for. Our little umbrella provided little shelter as we waited for our Uber.
Slightly drenched we got back to the hotel with enough time to dry off before we needed to check out and go back to Union Station to catch our first leg of the California Zephyr.
We found the lounge at the station (crowded) with hilarious food selection (carrot and celery sticks, cauliflower and broccoli flowers, some cheese, sour cream kind of stuff)
plus coffee, tea, soft drinks. Thinking we would need some nibbly stuff for the train we went in search of a shop at the station. Donuts and muffins plus loads of lollies were all the sop offered. No thanks.
We were in the same compartment, 02, in the same car, 531, on both legs of our Zephyr journey.
Jay the car attendant met us at the door of the car and directed us upstairs. We pulled away at 2pm, right on time.
We were asked to stay in our compartments until the conductor had checked our tickets but after our dinner preference was taken by the lovely restaurant manager (she had a really funny delivery over the pa) we gave up waiting and went straight to the observation car and set ourselves up for the afternoon with beers from the downstairs café/bar.
I’m now going to express my only gripe with the train. It’s a gripe that reeks of privilege. The Zephyr is scheduled to take 34 hours to get to Salt Lake City. I understand that sitting in a seat in coach would be pretty ordinary but you pay a lot for a sleeper berth and you have no priority for seats in the observation car, seats at lunch or seats at breakfast. You just have dinner priority.
Gripe over.
Donut holes - delicious!!
the empty dining car
