We intended to go to The Museum of Science and Industry first, and then the Shredd Aquarium, since we were not as fixed on going there. We had looked at a map and even though Science & Industry looked a little ways away from Shredd and the Field Museum, we were not expecting the news we received from a security officer outside the Field Museum when we inquired about the whereabouts of The Museum of Science and Industry, five miles past the nearby Soldier Field. Five miles?! He told us how to get there by bus, but we wondered if it was such a good idea.
We decided to go ahead to the aquarium. We saw a really long line for tickets that spilled onto halfway down their stairs outside, but I speculated that since we already had tickets through the City Pass, we probably wouldn't have to wait. We decided that I would hold a place in the line while Garrett would go in another entrance they had and check. Sure enough, we could cut the line and go straight in (this applies to all places on the City Pass by the way)! It was already around noon, as we had gotten a late start, and quickly came to discover that the food place not too far away from the entrance was closed (what we thought was the only food place in the building), but moved forward anyways. It was pretty much a typical aquarium, but they had (1) penguins! and (2) a really cool jellyfish exhibit. Unfortunately all my pictures from the exhibit turned out terrible, but they had jellyfish in different stages of life and different kinds, and it was pretty fascinating.
We did finally find a food place in the aquarium, where Garrett and I both had cheeseburgers. I had low expectations but they were actually really good! They also had Cherry Coke, which is the only caffeinated and carbonated beverage that I really, really like, though I just had water and stole a few sips of Garrett's Cherry Coke (why not, refills were free!).
We only saw one otter at the aquarium so I feel this shirt from the gift shop is deceitful, but still cute:
We left the aquarium and discovered the weather was much nicer than it had been that morning and than it had been predicted to be. It made us want to do anything outside, but we really weren't near anything other than the Field Museum, and it was almost 4:00 already. We decided that since we had the City Pass and would not have to pay to go into the Field Museum, we might as well check it out before we went back to Margaret and Rob's (we had planned taking them out to dinner that night so we really needed to get back). Once we got there, we found out that the museum was closing in an hour! But thankfully we did not have much that we wanted to see, so we went for it.
Sue the T-Rex welcomed us there.
First we decided to check out The Hall of Jade and The Hall of Gems, both pretty neat but not at all time-consuming.
Once we were finished with those, we decided to check out an "Exploring Ancient Egypt" exhibit they had. We went in and found that it was constructed with ancient Egyptian artifacts from tomb sites.
We first read about an Egyptian king whose mummy had been stolen and found, and then we descended down some stairs to see the mummy.
Seeing it was a little surreal! There were other mummies and artifacts on display, but we had barely started looking at them before we were told that the museum was closing and we needed to leave. Considering we had not even planned to go and did not really pay for it, we felt we did not really miss anything and enjoyed the few things we saw.
That evening we looked at the weather and the forecast was looking pretty nasty, calling for cold and rainy weather. We had originally planned to attend the Cubs game that day, since it was during the day and not in the evening like the other games that week, but I knew we wouldn't enjoy it in that weather. We also both really wanted to go to The Museum of Science and Industry because we had heard nothing but fabulous things about it, so we decided that we would spend the day there. Afterward, if we happened to have the time and the weather wasn't terrible, we would check out The Chicago Botanical Garden (actually outside Chicago), but otherwise the plan was to hit a mall in a suburb that Garrett found on the Internet, and potentially meet another one of his cousins and her husband there for dinner.
Margaret told us that we would need to drive to the museum and gave us the safest route to do so, so we did not end up in a rough neighborhood! The museum had its own parking garage and was really off in its own little world compared to all the other attractions in Chicago. I don't remember what time we arrived... probably around 10 or 10:30, and learned that the museum closed at 4:00 (which meant if we had magically gotten there the day before after the aquarium, it would have been closed!). Despite the early close time, we thought it sounded like plenty of time. We were wrong!
First off, I do have one complaint about The City Pass, or maybe about Science and Industry, I'm not sure which. With each museum we went to we were told that our pass included some sort of IMAX show or special exhibit or what have you, none of which we had been interested in. On our way to Science and Industry, I got really excited because on the Pass it seemed to indicate that the Pass included a tour of the inside of the U-boat, which normally costs extra. I really wanted to do the tour so I was thrilled. But when we got there and were asked if we wanted to watch some film about tornadoes (I live in Middle Tennessee, I do not want to watch a film about the storms that have threatened to destroy my home thankyouverymuch), we asked if the pass included the U-boat tour. He said no, it cost extra. He works there, we assume he knows, so we didn't argue much. So either he was uninformed or the pass was misleading. But I digress...
We decided to start on the third floor and work our way down, and the first place we hit was Science Storms. There we were met by 10,000 children (not an exaggeration, pretty sure). We enjoyed it as best as we could, but thankfully got to see the second story portion of it later with significantly less children. We saw some more neat stuff that we liked (like the Twinkie displayed in a case which has a 2008 birthday... it's an experiment to see how long it holds up!), ate lunch at their food court (it was much bigger and nicer looking than the aquarium's and had more food choices, but I didn't like my food as much... probably my fault for choosing the grilled chicken sandwich over everything else they had...), enjoyed the miniature Chicago (a model of the city), old Chicago (a replica of how Chicago used to look, not the pizza place (which Garrett and I discovered this weekend now has Chicago style deep dish pizza and it's amazing)), airplanes and then we found the DNA/genetic exhibit.
I have always had a slight interest in science fiction, and the interest grew a lot when I discovered The Twilight Zone, Garrett introduced me to Star Trek, our friends introduced us to Firefly, etc. In my last semester of college, I all of a sudden had a severe interest in genetic engineering and wrote a screenplay on the idea for my Scriptwriting class. I suddenly remembered a movie my dad had told me about several years ago called Gattaca and suddenly had to see it. You get the idea. Out of nowhere, this fascination for the topic came over me. I loved this exhibit and really took the time to soak it all in. I don't even know how to explain it... a lot of it was just reading about the possibilities, though there were the genetically-engineered green eyed frogs for us to see. Let's just say that I loved it. and when I go back to Science and Industry one day, I will probably spend a lot of time there again (especially if it's updated with new stuff, which it probably will be).
We went through another exhibit that was also pretty cool about ideas of the future, such as hover cars and recreational space travel, and then we found the captured U-boat exhibit. And the WWII history junkie in me was so excited.
We took our time here as well, and by the time we got to the point where you could get involved in the tour inside the boat, we found out that the last tour was sold out! Garrett made a comment about how he should have bought tickets when we first got there, and I had not even realized he was actually planning on paying the extra for them, so suddenly I was a little sad too. But next time, we've decided, we will see the inside of that boat! And again, I can't really explain the exhibit, you would have to be there, but if you have any interest in WWII history you would probably love it. We even chatted with a museum employee for a few minutes about the living conditions in the boat. Small spaces + no showers + no AC + smoking = ICK. Without going in the U-boat there were still a lot of reading and artifacts relating to the boat's capture and parts of the boat (like the anchor, engine, etc.) that could be seen and took plenty of time on its own.
Once we finished that, we found a space exhibit, which I was excited to find for Garrett, but unfortunately, we were probably only there about 15 minutes when we heard the museum was closing! But this time we weren't ready! We had not seen everything we wanted (which was actually everything, unlike at the Field and Art Institute)! So unfortunately, we went along our way...
I'll take you to Space Center Houston one day Garrett, I promise. :)
The weather was still chilly, and we weren't sure how our timing would be once we got to the Botanical Gardens if we went with that, so we headed to the suburb of Shaumburg to the Woodfield Mall. Garrett just happened to find it on the Internet and it sounded pretty nice, and it really was, nicer I thought than the Wolfchase Galleria that we would be at just a few days later! I bought a blouse for work from Ann Taylor, some comfy shoes for work from Naturalizer (aka my new favorite shoe brand), a serving cute bowl from Anthropologie, and Garrett got a hillariously awesome Christmas Darth Vader bobble-head from a gaming store. And yes, I will put it up in my house at Christmas because it makes me happy! Dinner with the other cousin did not work out, so we stayed at the mall and enjoyed another dinner at The Cheesecake Factory, and this time actually had the chance to enjoy a slice of cheesecake!
We split some steak, which I thought was a little dry and not very flavorful, but Garrett seemed to like, and then we split the 30th Anniversary Special cheesecake, layered with original cheesecake and chocolate cheesecake. Pretty good, but still not as good as Godiva chocolate cheesecake! And that concluded our trip, which overall, was pretty great!
Things we missed this time that I definitely want to do next time: The Botanical Garden, Cubs game, Chicago Theatre tour, walking or biking along lake front, U-boat tour at Science and Industry, eating at Uno's, eating by the river, more shopping.
Things we missed I would like to check out if time permits: Lincoln Park (zoo, conservatory, Oz Park), Little Italy and Hull House Museum, maybe the John Hancock observatory.
Things I want to do again: Museum of Science and Industry, maybe the Art Institute, Millennium Park, maybe the Sears Tower.
I hope I didn't bore y'all too much with my recaps! If you ever plan to go to Chicago and have questions, please feel free to ask! It was a good time and I hope you enjoyed reading about it! Anything you have the itch to do now?
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