In the first four months of 2007, my 3-year-old daughter has flown more than 21,000 miles. We have spent more hours in Chicago’s O’Hare airport than I care to remember (though the experiences are rather hard to forget). At this point my daughter knows her way around Terminal One better than some of the custodians… and certainly better than most business travelers.
These days she knows if we fly United Airlines she will be reunited with her friend “Brachy.” They’re pals now, but it wasn’t always this way. In fact, the first time she laid eyes on “Brachy” she wanted to run in the opposite direction. That’s because “Brachy” is four stories tall and doesn’t exactly have a warm and fuzzy exterior. Then again, most dinosaurs don’t. That’s right. “Brachy” is a dinosaur. A Brachiosaurus to be exact. (Hence my daughter’s nickname for him). Stop by his home inside the terminal and you’ll learn that he is the largest mounted dinosaur in the world and roamed the planet 150 million years ago. (When you have three plus hours to kill in an airport with a toddler you have time to learn these things.)
You can’t miss him. Believe me. My daughter was the first to notice him during one of our earlier trips. We had just made it through security to the part of the terminal that lead to the concourse where our gate was located when my daughter let out a high pitched scream (the decibel-level made every TSA agent jump). All I remember thinking was: “What in the world…” But, before I had the chance to figure out what all the commotion was about I heard my daughter exclaim: “Mommy, there’s a dinosaur in the airport.”
And, so it began… my daughter’s “friendship” with a bunch of bones in the shape of a plant-eating dinosaur. In all fairness, “Brachy” is a site to see. Chicago’s Field Museum partnered with United Airlines to introduce the Brachiosaurus to the millions of visitors who pass through O’Hare International each year. He’s modeled from bones excavated in 1900 by Field Museum paleontologist Elmer Riggs. There’s much more information about “Brachy” and his “brothers” (as my daughter refers to them) posted on a television monitor in the exhibit area just to the right of the gigantic model.
Even if you aren’t traveling with kids it’s worth checking out. (However, if you are traveling with excitable kids with healthy lungs I’d suggest bringing some earplugs.)
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