Two weekends ago, my parents came to visit for what was the apparently last glorious weather weekend of the year. They brought the Texas sunshine and took it with them when they left, ushering in that first snow fall and days of below 30 degree temperatures. However, we had a fabulous weekend, showing them our apartment, neighborhood, and Lincoln Square, eating at Marmalade, Fork, and Fountainhead (and trying breakfast at Le Cafe...delicious!), watching UT beat West Virginia in a nail-biter of a game, and visiting the
Museum of Science and Industry for the first time.
My parents especially loved wandering the neighborhood and eating in our favorite restaurants. They loved our visit to Gene's, where along with the usual cold cut samples, they were sampling hot, freshly cooked bacon, several wines, and the most delicious fruit butters ever. We also popped into a few other shops over the weekend, including
The Chopping Block cooking shop and the used book store where my mom found a book for her book club and my dad excitedly purchased a first edition of Edna Ferber's
Giant.
Dinner at Fountainhead
We forgot to take pictures at most of our restaurants, but don't worry. We make up for that with pictures from the Museum of Science and Industry.
Outside of the Museum of Science and Industry, built for the 1893 Columbian Exposition
(a.k.a The Chicago World's Fair)
M: The ticket lobby looks like an airport, but the destination is WONDER!
E: Because we'd bought our U-Boat tickets early, we were able to skip the line and get our museum and Disney tickets quickly. And the lobby totally feels like an airport terminal.
E: Our first stop was the Burlington Zephyr, the train that set the speed record for the Chicago-Denver route in 1934. It was also one of the first trains to utilize stainless steel, making it sleek, shiny, and super fast!
M: It felt a little like a Disney exhibit because of the animatronic Ralph Budd and Zeph the donkey. It was a cool exhibit, but I don't feel the need to see it with every visit to the museum.
E: I enjoyed it, but I agree. I did think it was cool that it was one of the first trains to have air conditioning in the passenger car, though.
Science Trees!
(They were already setting up for an exhibit on Christmas Trees from Around the World)
E: Dara had recommended we visit the Science Storms exhibit. It was pretty cool, especially the indoor tornado and the avalanche section.
M: The spinning avalanche thing was very hypnotic. I also very much enjoyed the tidal wave diorama.
We grabbed lunch in the very impressive food court, and then it was time for the U-BOAT! A quick run through the very entertaining Circus exhibit (where, if you look carefully, you will find a hidden R2-D2 in one of the displays) led to the entrance to the U-Boat exhibit, which presents a comprehensive and interesting history of the U-Boat conflict and the Hunter/Killer groups created to destroy them. Many U-Boats were sunk, damaged, and destroyed, but only one was ever captured.
BOOM! This one.
E: It is quite the impressive sight to round a corner and suddenly be starting at a behemoth of a submarine. It was just awesome.
M: The boat itself is huge and impressive, but when you add in the fact that they got it inside the building without damaging it, it becomes mindblowing.
E: That was, in fact, the first question we asked: HOW DID YOU GET IT INSIDE???? They have a time-lapse video showing the process at the end of the exhibit, which is worth the price of admission, but basically they built several Jenga towers under it and slowly removed blocks from the Jenga towers, lowering it into the bunker. Then they built the roof over it. All while it was in ONE PIECE! Mind. Blown.
Dad was super excited to see it.
This is the original color of the sub. It was painted black when the Americans captured it to disguise it. The museum was able to scratch down to the original paint to find that grey color and repainted when they decided to create the exhibit. Before that, it had spent several years just sitting on the museum lawn.
About to go inside!!!
E: The inside is tiny. I strongly believe that if you didn't have claustrophobia before, you would after living several months on this sub. Plus who wants to sleep next to torpedoes? Also, at times, living on a sub required complete silence. A dropped pen could be enough to give away a sub's location.
M: Water was limited to drinking and cooking, which meant no real bathing for the 59 men on board for the duration of the mission. Instead they rubbed themselves down with rubbing alcohol to combat infection. It would have been really, really hot because of the engines running along the length of the ship. No bathing and profuse sweating. A winning combination.
E: When the Americans cornered the sub and forced it to surface, the German crew tried to scuttle the sub before they evacuated. Unfortunately for them, whoever was in charge of setting the charges to explode the sub didn't actually set them, and all the rest of the crew did was open the sea water hatch. Though the sub was filling with water and in danger of sinking, the Americans simply replaced the cap, thus saving the sub and all of its vital intelligence, including 2 enigma machines.
M: We can't stress enough how small this thing was on the inside. We are both small people, and it was still too small for us. I have to think, on some level, the Germans had to be happy to get off this boat, even if they were doing so officially against their own will.
Open torpedo hatch
The U-Boat was incredible, and if you come visit us, we will likely try to convince you to go with us to see it again. But the museum has a lot of other cool stuff to offer, including an impressive transportation display.
E: After the U-Boat, we headed over to the Disney exhibit. This is a special touring exhibit featuring many major items from the Disney vault. We've become a little bit of Disney nerds since our trip to Disney World this past summer, so we were excited to see what the exhibit had to offer.
M: The exhibit was similar to one in Hollywood Studios at Disney World, but it had a number of items we had not seen before. The overall exhibit was organized chronologically through Walt Disney's career and beyond.
E: It really emphasized the incredible art and film making innovations created by Disney and his studio, so we especially encourage artists and art fans to check it out. As with the other Disney "exhibits" we've seen at the theme park, it was impressively curated, comprehensive, and entertaining.
Original concept sketches from
Snow White,
Cinderella, and
Fantasia (1940)
Model animator's desk
or, as the little girl behind us called it, "A big fish!"
Lego model in process
E: There were a ton of other amazing treasures in the exhibit from original costumes to a gorgeous painting of London used in
Mary Poppins (1964). It was a great exhibit! My only complaint was that there was not nearly enough
Beauty and the Beast stuff, which is obviously the best Disney movie ever made.
M: Based on the events of the last few years, the best Disney movie is
Return of the Jedi (1983).
E: No, because it was not made when Disney owned Star Wars.
M: Fine. Aladdin.
E: Anyway, we highly recommend the Museum of Science and Industry! It may be my new favorite museum. It was a great weekend with my family, too, and we're looking forward to our next visitors!
