When free is not free

We were bound to hit a bump or two in our summer roads, with all our grand ambitions, and Dad and the kids hit a real doozy yesterday.

Yet somehow, at the end of it all, Levynn and Lincoln returned home singing and smiling. And Dad was sane.

Where to begin? Let's start with the Shedd Aquarium (oh, is that place on Dad's .... list now) and its advertised free week, which obviously got Dad's attention. We had been there only once - back in December '07, our first month here - when Lincoln was a baby, and its recently revamped Oceanarium (where the dolphins, beluga whales, sea lions and sea otters live) has a new play Polar Play Zone that the Tribune had hyped (ask Mom the newspaperwoman about that one). There was a chance of rain, but Dad thought we'd be fine because we only would have to get from building to bus to building on each end of the trip. And if it already was raining when we departed, Dad was ready to take a bus to the bus. He didn't see a problem.

(Remind Dad to reread that paragraph before he makes any other big plans.)

But we'll spare you many of the details. To get to the point: we rode the most crowded bus, packed to the door all the way to the aquarium, that Dad ever had seen; rain was pouring down when we got off that bus; and we came upon a line snaking around to The Field Museum, with people standing in the rain waiting to enter the aquarium.

Now we'll get to the good part.

It turned out that the aquarium wanted to keep track of the number of people who entered, which meant everyone needed a ticket. So the line didn't end when we got inside the building. And then Dad saw yellow bracelets on some wrists and began to wonder.

The woman behind the desk didn't ask us anything but "how many?" and proceeded to print out our tickets. Dad then led the kids straight to the Oceanarium. We went down some stairs, through a hall and into the purview of an aquarium staffer who said we could not go any farther without bracelets. "They're discounted this week," she said, thinking she was helpful, "$16.95 for you, $11.95 for her."

This is where Dad recalled - and now would like to take the time to detail here - that he had looked on the aquarium's Web site when planning this adventure. This is what he had read there:

Community Discount Days
On our Community Discount Days, general admission is free, and packages including Wild Reef are available at a discounted rate. Shedd's 52 discount days a year take advantage of civic and school holidays to make family visits more convenient.

2009 Community Discount Weeks are on the following dates in June (14 through 19), and Oct. (4 through 9).

2009 Community Discount Days are on the following dates for Mondays and Tuesdays in September (21, 22, 28 and 29) October (12, 13, 19, 20, 26 and 27) and November (2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24, and 30.)

Do you see Oceanarium mentioned? Dad didn't, either, because it's not there. (Wild Reef is where the sharks live - and that costs extra, too.) So Dad had figured the Oceanarium was free.

And he wanted an explanation.

After talking to a woman at the membership desk and a woman at the information desk (both asked if he wanted to talk to someone from IT), Dad was introduced to Ron. Dad gave him the same spiel - "Your Web site does not say that the Oceanarium is not free this week" - so Ron looked at the Web site. Shockingly, he agreed, and he handed Dad a bracelet. He said Levynn wouldn't need one.

Yippee!

So we watched the beluga whales.




We watched the dolphins from below, in the play area (which is very overrated!).




And the kids touched some fake stuff.



We wanted to see the dolphins' show. But when we emerged from the play area, several minutes before showtime, it was closed. "The seats are completely full," we were told. No standing? "It's a fire hazard." Will there be another show? "No, that's the last one."

Now, Dad knew better than to complain, when everyone else had paid to be standing where he and the kids were standing. But what about those people who paid? A bunch ended up trying to get into the show, too, and were turned away. The aquarium is still taking people's money but won't let them see the moneymaker? Booooooooo!

We went to the cafe to find a seat and eat apple slices we had brought. It was just about dinner time at this point, and Levynn spied the counter and asked to buy some food. But the cafe wasn't serving food anymore! Booooooooo!

So the kids ate the apples merrily, those good sports.



We'll skip more details and get right to the final point. Dad looked at the aquarium's Web site this morning, out of curiosity, and found this:

Community Discount Days
On our Community Discount Days, general admission is free. (Includes the Waters of the World, Amazon Rising, and the Caribbean Reef) Packages including Wild Reef and Oceanarium are available at a discounted rate. Shedd's 52 discount days a year take advantage of civic and school holidays to make family visits more convenient.

2009 Community Discount Weeks are on the following dates in June (14 through 19), and Oct. (4 through 9).

2009 Community Discount Days are on the following dates for Mondays and Tuesdays in September (21, 22, 28 and 29) October (12, 13, 19, 20, 26 and 27) and November (2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24, and 30).

Do you notice anything different?