September 20-22, 2006 - Chicago

We are in a campground west of Chicago in Tinley Park. We are about 1 mile from the train station for the train that runs into Chicago. It is $8.00 round trip and takes about an hour so it seems better than driving and trying to find a parking place.

We took the train into Chicago on Wednesday, Sept. 20 and walked along the lake to the Field Museum. Look at some of the captions on the photos for info about the walk. The Field Museum was started a little before 1900 by the Marshall Field family of department store fame. This new bulding, which looks just exactly like a museum SHOULD look, was built in 1923.. Some of the original display cases made in 1902 are still used. They are magnificent. They remind me of the way the Smithsonian used to look... The animal specimens were quite extraordinary.

We visited the King Tut Exhibition which is traveling around the world. There were LOTS of employees to watch people and advance the crowds. They did a very good job of keeping the flow moving and not allowing too many people in each room at any one time. King Tutankhamun (Tut) became King when he was about 9 years old in about 1334 BC. His father (at least they think it was his father...) had eliminated all gods except the sun disc. The people were not happy about it. When the father died, and the boy became King Tut he reinstated the gods in their rightful positions of worship. However, King Tut only lived for 10 more years. He died at the age of about 19. Recent (last 5 years) CAT scans have revealed that he might have died from an infection from a knee injury. His death was very unexpected and they had to find a tomb to bury him in since he hadn't had enough time to finish his own tomb! He was buried in a small tomb that hadn't been meant for him but was available, probably the tomb that had been prepared for his advisor.

The audio tour that was an option told us how a body was mummified...something I always wondered about. The heart, liver, stomach/intestines and lungs were removed from the body. They were placed in 4 separate jars called canopics along with salt to dry them. The canopics were then placed in the tomb. Then (lovely...) the brain was removed by pulling it through the nose with a hook. It was disposed of. For some reason they thought it would be bad for the body to be buried with it... The thoracic and abdominal cavities were filled with herbs, spices and bitumen and then sewn closed. The body was placed in salt for 40 days. Then the body was wrapped in hundreds of yards of fine linen the had been soaked in cedar and other oils. In between the layers of linen were herbs, spices and valuable ornaments either from the body's previous life or for its afterlife. Each layer of cloth was kept in place with gum arabic to seal the body from the atmosphere.

King Tut's body had an elaborate mask over it. Then it was placed in a series of three nested coffins with the innermost one being the most elaborately decorated. These were placed in a sarcaphogus which was then surrounded by 3 nested "shrines" (wooden cases).

Also in the tomb with him were boats to carry him to the afterlife--by the way, he would only travel to the afterlife in the dark of night. There were also many shabtis--small carved figurines with Chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead carved or painted on them. These figurines were instructed (through the verses) to perform all of the work and duties of the mummy in the afterlife. This way, all things were taken care of for him and he could just enjoy his afterlife without working. (Anybody want a shabtis?)

The exhibit was very well done, but I sure would have like to have seen more about the search for the tomb and the actual excavation. About the only real info given was that the man who was paying for the expedition, Lord Carnarvon, was disappointed with the lack of progress and was about to withdraw his financial backings. On Nov 26, 1922, Howard Carter, the expedition leader, was directed by a boy water carrier to a "split" in the earth that was actually the stairway down to King Tut's tomb.

On Thursday, Sept 21, we again took the train into Chicago and this time went to the Navy Pier. It was used for training during WWI and WWII. About 15 years ago or so they began a renovation of it with shops, food, amusement park, ballroom, conference center, etc. The amusement park has a 150' tall modern replica of the 240' tall, wooden, very first Ferris Wheel that was exhibited at the (I think) 1903 World's Fair. The original Ferris Wheel held about 40 people in each gondola. It was the largest hardened steel axle ever made up to that time. Can you imagine the trouble Ferris had getting the first group of people into one of those gondolas?

One of the things they added to Navy Pier was the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, built like the original theaters where Shakespeare was performed in England. The seating goes around 3 sides of the stage and no seat is more than about 12 rows from the stage. We got tickets to see Hamlet that night and our seats were right on the center row 5 seats back. The show was almost sold out so we don't really know how we got such good seats... It was an excellent show with excellent acting. We didn't get out until 10:30 and had to catch a cab and then the 10:50 PM train. We made it. I'm sure glad because the next train was an hour later!

In between the Pier and the show we took a double-decker bus tour of Chicago. It was only OK.

We are spending today catching up on paperwork and these travel logs!

You probably have at least a week until the next update!