Sunday morning was nice and relaxed, and we were able to take our time packing up the van for the drive to Chicago. Normally, we would have gotten up at the butt-crack of dawn in order to get to our destination at opening time, but we had something working in our favor: the Eastern Time Zone. That's right--on this drive, we would be going
back in time.
Yes, it really just gave us an extra hour to work with, but it sounds better when you say you're time-traveling. Mrs. Knowitall will have to comment and explain when exactly she got sick of hearing this joke on the trip, since we crossed the time zone line a few times.
Once again, we drove into a storm, and our arrival in the Windy City was shrouded in a downpour. Not exactly an auspicious start.
Our destination on this not-so-fine morning was the
Chicago Museum of Science & Industry, located in Hyde Park on the infamous South Side of the city. The building itself is a wonder--it's the last remaining building from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition (sort of a World's Fair), formerly the Palace of Fine Arts building. Mrs. Knowitall was thrilled to see it in person, having just finished reading
The Devil in the White City, which was a book detailing the story of the Exposition. I didn't get a chance to read it, but she says it was a fantastic story, and that the fair was full of incredible engineering, architectural and artistic feats by some of the leading minds of the time. Also, there was a serial killer in there somewhere.
Hopefully he wasn't still hanging around.
We followed Tom and Cathy into the city and found the museum without trouble. They have an underground parking garage that costs $18 a day. However, being one of the first families to arrive, we parked at ground level in a lot adjacent to the museum building that ended up costing us about $7 for 5-6 hours. Sometimes the early bird only gets a worm, but sometimes he scores and gets the cheap parking spot!
At this point, I need to stop and praise Mrs. Knowitall for her bargain shopping. A few months earlier, she had received a groupon offer for a year's membership at the Delaware Natural History Museum--$27 for the year. This museum is--how can I say this delicately?--crappy. It's basically a few rooms with some taxidermied (is that a word?) animals in display cases. You'd get more value from $27 worth of whoopie cushions.
However, Julie read the small print. And the small print said that this membership offered reciprocal membership to science museums all over the nation...including the Science & Industry Museum in Chicago. So, she bought the membership for the express purpose if using it there and saving us about $50 on the admission. And yes, I married way, way out of my league.
So: at long last, we entered the musuem. And we immediately decided to send Sarah to the moon. Just because we could.
If FreezinRafiki and afwdwfan have fallen asleep up to this point, they'll want to wake up for this part. One of the first exhibits we checked out was on American farming. Scotty immediately found a friend, which reminded me of a bit from the Muppet Show.
Statler: If a man who rides a horse is called a cowboy, what do you call a man who rides a cow?
Waldorf: Stupid.
They had a couple of farm tractors in the room, and the kids had a great time climbing all over them. The giant combine was set up in front of a movie screen that made it look like you were harvesting a field. Scotty got in and felt the need...the need for speed!
There was also a room detailing the science behind using cow manure for fuel. We got this helpful display showing the start of the process. Because, you know, it happens.
When I see a display like that, I always wonder who the poor dope was that got the job of having to sculpt a replica of poop. How does one go about doing that?
No doubt, farming is very glamorous. Right, guys?
We found another room playing off the energy theme to show different ways of producing energy, or detailing potential vs. kinetic energy. The central display was a Rube Goldberg-type device that used various mechanics to shoot billiard balls through all sorts of channels and chutes. It was cooler than it sounds from my description. Either that, or I'm just a big nerd.
At that point, it was time for a special exhibit: way down in the basement of the museum lurks a sinister threat...
Behold the U-505. This is an actual German U-boat from World War II that
was captured by the U.S.S. Chatelain in June of 1944. German naval officers were under strict orders to scuttle their ships to avoid having them fall into enemy hands, but the U.S. boarding party reached the sub in time to stop the flooding and disable the explosive charges that had been rigged. This yielded a treasure trove of Nazi secrets, including an Enigma code machine.
The sub exhibit is massive, and excellent. It seems to go for miles, giving a great sense of the naval theater of the war. I wish we'd had more time to explore it. Touring the sub is an extra cost, but we decided to go for it. It was worth it. The tour was timed, and the guide had a strict script to follow that coincided with a soundtrack that played inside the sub. While our tour guide was a little mechanical and O-VER-E-NUN-CI-AT-ED every word, the story was fascinating. Being a sucker for WWII, military history, and submarines, I ate up every detail.
Seriously, submarines are always cool. Period. There's even no such thing as a bad submarine movie. Name one. See? You can't do it.
Ok, except for K-19: The Widowmaker, which made the mistake of having Harrison Ford speak in a Russian accent. But that wasn't the submarine's fault.
Anyway, we all thought the sub tour was fantastic. Except for Scotty, who thought it was scary and walked through the entire sub with his hands over his ears. This is the kid who screamed bloody murder in line for Spaceship Earth, so I can't say this was entirely unexpected.
We spent some more time exploring the exhibit outside. Several retired U.S. Navy vets were on hand, and we spent a few minutes talking with one about the Nazi technology. He showed us a torpedo they had developed which was one of the first to use built-in sonar to find its target. This was one of the secrets discovered on the U-505. Unfortunately, it was unreliable technology, and they believe at least 2 German U-boats were sunk by their own torpedoes.
It was getting close to lunchtime now, but we still had time to check out the electricity and magnetism exhibits.
Up above, they were doing a demonstration of a
Tesla coil. The boys didn't like the loud noises it made, but Julie, Sarah and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Julie wanted one to use at home, although I'm not entirely sure what purpose she had in mind.
We also found a helpful exhibit on catalytic converters. Some of you on Facebook know that my catalytic converter was stolen right off the bottom of my car just a week before we had left on this trip. Before that, the only thing I knew about catalytic converters was that they existed and had something to do with emissions. Now, thanks to that incident and this exhibit, I knew more than I ever cared to. I tried to see if I could get this as a replacement, but I didn't bring my hand saw with me.
With that, it was time for lunch, so I'll stop here. 3 guesses as to what was on the menu.
Coming Up Next: Planes, Trains & Automobiles. And instant ice cream. And silly hats.
).
I've got just the thing! 
