Scientia et Industria

The first museum of the Chicago trip was the Museum of Science and Industry. I’m going to preface the rest of this post by saying that I love museums. If I have to be vacationing in a city instead of trekking through mud somewhere, museums (and other related attractions) are an acceptable substitute for rocks and trees. Some museums even have rocks and trees inside them. The Air and Space Museum¹; National Museum of Natural History¹; American Museum of Natural History²; Metropolitan Museum of Art²; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston³; New England Aquarium³; Museum of the Earth⁴; Newport Mansions⁵; Casa Loma⁶; Boldt Castle⁷; Henry Ford Museum⁸; Greenfield Village⁸; been to them all, plus more. Do I see the same variations of old furniture, dinosaur reconstructions, rocks, art, planes, trains, and automobiles in all of these places? Yes. Do I care? Not a bit.

[If you’re keeping track of my travels, that would be ¹Washington, DC; ²New York City, NY; ³Boston, MA; ⁴Ithaca, NY; ⁵Newport, RI; ⁶Toronto, Canada; ⁷Thousand Islands, NY; and ⁸Dearborn, MI.]

The point is that even though I’ve seen other model ships, space artifacts, and plasma globes, we still spent six and a half hours seeing the model ships, space artifacts, and plasma globes at the Museum of Science and Industry. We started the day by making our way to the giant dome theater in the space center via the circus and I Spy exhibits. The I Spy rooms were fun; each enclosed area had a scene set up in it, like penguins playing poker, and a list of things to find in the scene. It was basically 3D I Spy. When we reached the space center, we looked around a bit, then saw a show about oceans and fish in the giant dome theater. The Museum of Natural History in New York City has a similar theater where I’ve seen a show about space and stars (twice). I’ve also seen the national parks show at the Henry Ford Museum multiple times, which should surprise approximately nobody at this point.

The draw of the giant dome theater is that the screen is above you and wraps around so that you feel like you’re surrounded by the show. It’s a cool experience to have every once in awhile. After the show, we watched some clips from the Apollo 11 mission as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon (while Michael Collins waited for them back in the command module). The Museum of Science and Industry is also home to the actual Apollo 8 command module. Apollo 8 orbited the moon for the first time and produced the Earthrise photo and Christmas Eve television broadcast where the crew read from Genesis while circling the moon. Of the crew, only Jim Lovell would go on to make another spaceflight, becoming the commander of the infamous Apollo 13 mission, while Apollo 8 was the last mission for Frank Borman and Bill Anders.

The Apollo 8 Command Module

The other main exhibit that we wanted to see was the U-505, a German U-boat captured during World War II. This is probably the biggest unique exhibit in the museum. The exhibit takes you through the events leading up to the capture and towing of the U-boat, complete with animatronics and torpedo sounds. Then the main room contains the U-boat itself, plus things taken from the U-boat such as cans of bread and enigma machines. If you’re doing the whirlwind tour of the museum, and only see a few exhibits, this should be one of them.

U-505

By this time, I was hungry, so we had lunch at the Brain Food Court. Yes, it’s really called that. No, I didn’t see any brains being served for lunch. Like our lunch the day before (and the day after) it was standard museum fare. Sandwiches, soup, salad, noodles, blue jello, etc. I’ve said it before; I’ll say it again – I am not a huge food person. If it’s not too salty, greasy, or expensive, it’s good enough for me. Following lunch, we made our way through most of the rest of museum, seeing the model train, baby chicks, glacier pictures, bicycles, a 727, and the world’s largest pinball machine before calling it a day.

If you really like museums, you can definitely spend a whole day at the Museum of Science of Industry. If you like museums, at least go to see the U-505, the Apollo 8 capsule, the pinball machine, and the chicks. Because how can you resist baby fluffballs?

Fluffiness