Adventure Guide | Chicago: Up Close with Butterflies 🦋
Finally, I'm updating the Chicago museum section. These museums are quite large, so writing about them takes a bit of time—please bear with me! Let's start with the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. It's just across the street from Lincoln Park, so you can easily visit both in one trip. Many of its exhibits overlap with the Field Museum, so if you're short on time, you might skip it. But it has one major advantage: Free admission for residents on Thursdays! Just book online and scan your code at the entrance (no ID required). The garden outside is full of butterfly sculptures—girls will love it, though my kid was only interested in one that was covered in eyes. Every time we passed it, he asked why it looked that way 😅. ✅Indoor Butterfly Garden This is the highlight! You can get up close and personal with the butterflies (though it's up to them if they want to interact). Wherever you go, you'll see a flurry of butterflies. There are fruit plates scattered around that the butterflies will come to eat. There are also butterfly release activities where staff explain their habits and then open the cages. Releasing butterflies isn't as exciting as releasing animals, though, because they mostly refuse to leave the cage 😂. (By the way, there's also a butterfly garden in Xi'an, and it's outdoors!) ✅Water Dynamics Playground This area has interactive water exhibits. It's not as fun as the ones at the Navy Pier Children's Museum, and even the ones at the Xiamen Science Museum are better. ✅Reptile Zone This is where all the live animals are kept, but only reptiles. Other areas have more diverse specimens—birds, animals, etc., but they're all preserved. There are also animal-inspired artworks nearby, which are very delicate. I would have spent more time admiring them if my kid hadn't been eager to move on. ✅Children's Entertainment Area Simple slides and dollhouses, with many ecology-related design details. Turning the steering wheel makes a woodpecker peck at a tree, jumping on lily pads produces different sound effects... There's also a fish school that suddenly sprays water, and a group of people spent ages trying to find the control but couldn't. There are interactive devices scattered throughout the museum to keep kids entertained. ✅Specimen Preparation Area I noticed that museums here like to make their workspaces transparent. My kid spent a long time watching the specimen room. Next door, a staff member was explaining cicada specimens to passers-by with great enthusiasm, but I... couldn't understand 😭. ✅Outdoor Birdwatching Area There are telescopes for visitors to observe birds in the garden, but it's really challenging. After all, it's just an open space, and you're lucky to catch a glimpse of a bird's tail 😂. Fortunately, there are many bird call panels that introduce various birds in Chicago. Press a button, and you can hear their corresponding calls. When you leave, take a look at the ceiling—there are birds nesting up there! #NatureIsMySanctuary #AutumnAdventure #FindingAutumnInTheDetails #NatureHasItsOwnWeather #AntaKidsAllWeatherGear
