Chicago Part 5: Chinese Christian Bookstore, Adler Planetarium and Shedd Aquarium

Another great stop in Chinatown included the Pui Tak Christian Bookstore. They have lots of great framed verses in Chinese calligraphy with beautiful artwork. We purchased a verse for our home, as well as several smaller pieces to give as gifts. They have a children's area that has several books that I've been admiring on Amazon. Most are Chinese folk tales written in English with lots of pictures. Put this shop on your to-do list if you're thinking of visiting the area. Kevin bought a book that has lots of illustrations showing how Chinese characters evolved from pictographs. We also bought a CD that's meant to help small children learn Mandarin. The Pui Tak building is just south of the Chinatown gate on the west side of the street.

Whew! You'd think Chicago's Chinatown is a huge place by all of those previous posts, but it's really not. We're obviously just super interested, and it's so new and fascinating to us that we treasured every minute. On Saturday afternoon we visited the Adler Planetarium and spent several hours at the Shedd Aquarium on Sunday. Kevin really enjoyed going inside of the Atwood Sphere. This is Chicago's oldest planetarium, constructed in 1913. It is made of metal and is only 15 feet in diameter. My favorite thing to see at the aquarium is always the electric eels. (I have pictures, but I'll spare you their scary green faces!) Both days were beautiful, and we spent some time in the park enjoying the sunshine.