I can’t believe that this is already the seventh day of my
journey, it feels as it was yesterday that I left LA. Perhaps one of the
reasons that this doesn’t feel so much like a trip is because I have so plenty
of time to do things slow, normally when traveling I always try to include as
much program into every day as possible in order to get the most out of the
time. Perhaps also the long train ride had a bit taken the speed out of the
journey and last but not least I felt almost like at home at my accommodation,
which even though a bit run down, was ten times nicer than a hotel room. Hotel
rooms normally give me this very unpersonal feeling, nothing that would remind
me about home in any way. So another plus point to Air B’n’B. Oh have I already
mentioned that this was my first Air B’n’B experience. Right. So far I really
liked it. Well there were two more to come, one in Miami and one in New York.
But back to Chicago. This day I plainly dedicated to the Museum of Science and
Industry and indeed the museum is big enough to spend an entire day in it. I
also experienced Chicago at an ordinary workday, so far I had only been there
during the weekend. Luckily however, I was able to skip rush hour. I left
towards downtown around 9.30 taking once again the pink line train all the way
to State and Lake. Unfortunately I just missed the bus 10 which only runs every
half an hour. Nevertheless, I used the time to take some pictures at the nearby
Chicago River before finally boarding the heavily crowded bus 10. The ride down
to the Museum of Science and Industry took quite a while because traffic was
bad. It was already well after 11 am when the bus finally arrived at the
museum. The lines at the ticket counters were terribly long but I noticed that
they also had ticket vending machines without cues. I had my ticket within
minutes and could proceed to the entrance without waiting a single minute. I
started with the Pioneer Zephyr a first generation diesel multiple unit train
set from the 1930s. This train was revolutionary by the time it was introduced.
The train set had just been freshly restored. Before entering the main
exhibition I had lunch at the museum cafeteria, a good choice because a huge
crowd of people just entered the cafeteria once I had started to eat. Then it
was time to see all the great things the museum had to offer. I started with
the Farm Tech exhibition where I saw how a computer driven milking machine
works and I could sit behind the wheel of a large corn harvester. I moved then
up to the second floor right into the Transportation Gallery where they had
different steam engines on display and a large model railroad featuring the
cities of Chicago and Seattle in miniature. The highlight of the transportation
Gallery certainly was the Boeing 727 a real aircraft flown by United between
1967 and 1992. It was possible to enter the aircraft, see the cockpit and to
take a seat in the rear cabin. After the transportation gallery I spend
considerable time in the science section refreshing much of the knowledge I had
gained from school but also adding some new and interesting facts to that.
Followed by that I visited numerous smaller galleries featuring all kinds of
topics. A few worth mentioning where the Toy Maker 3000, a model of a fully
automatized factory, the baby chick hatchery where one could witness the birth
of real chicken and the space flight gallery where the original capsular of the
Apollo 8 mission was on display. Finally I left the museum by closing time
which was at 5.30 pm. I could have easily spent another hour in the museum but
it was about time to get back. Luckily bus 10 showed up just minutes after I
had left the museum but was like in the morning very crowded. As it was looking
after rain I decided to head back to my accommodation, skipping the free
concert in the Grant Park. Instead I used the evening to make some further plans
for the upcoming two days I still had left in Chicago.
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| At the Museum of Science and Industry |
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