This is one of those two-days-for-the-price-of-one posts.
Yesterday, we had a solid plan. We’d had a solid plan the day before, to be fair, but had failed to factor the scale of Chicago into it and were caught out by pesky details like travelling time and closing hours. Yesterday, we set out determined to show evidence of learning… the plan was to get breakfast, hit the Museum of Science and Industry, and then maybe ChinaTown, maybe the Field Museum, maybe a bus tour of Chicago’s gangster sights. Inside of all that, we wanted to ride the el and eat an American pancake breakfast.
Sissy recommended a cafe called Wildberries, and by the magic of Google, we found one close to Union station. On the train, we also realised that Union Station is the setting for the scene from the Untouchables where the baby bounces down the stairs in its pram. So we started out by going to find the main station hall. Which is spectacular on a grand scale…. it makes Isambard Kingdom Brunel look like a rank amateur, frankly….
We jumped into a taxi, who took us via the underground roads that run beneath the city. I’m almost certain they were the setting for many Batman car chases, and it was also very reminiscent of killing a helicopter with a car. We were impressed with the taxi driver’s navigation underground; there are (obviously) no landmarks and it must take some serious effort to learn your way around the road network down there. I asked him whether it took a long time to learn, when we resurfaced and it felt safe to distract him, and was rewarded with a “Ma’am, it sure did!” He rounded off our brief conversation with a “I’m going to miss you guys!” as we got out of the cab; thereby setting the tone for a day of random, friendly interactions with locals.
Breakfast was astounding! A solid 24 hours later, I’m still full. I ordered eggs (poached), which came with pancakes and hash browns, and a side of bacon and corned beef hash. And a coffee. It arrived… and was frankly one of the largest meals I’ve ever seen. That’s a full sized spoon, for scale, at the bottom of the plate. Frankly, even if it were a teaspoon that’s an enormous amount of food!
From Wildberries, we hailed another cab down to the South Side and Hyde Park area, to the Museum of Science and Industry. I’d heard good things, and we definitely knew we wanted to see the U-Boat, the space exhibition and the storm exhibition. I used to take the kids to the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry when they were little, and it was a firm favourite family day out. So I had high expectations.
Honestly, the Chicago Museum is hands down the best museum I have ever been to. The exhibits are given enough space to breathe (unlike its London counterpart which always feels a bit crammed in) and the display boards are informative but encourage understanding through experimentation rather than taking the didactic approach of some other museums. We started with the U-Boat, which is a genuine German U-Boat captured in 1942. This was responsible for the allies’ understanding of German torpedo technology, and was the source of the Americans’ enigma machine. The boat is displayed in a full-length custom-built hall, and the ante-rooms walk you through a video and written history of how it came to be there, and what life aboard would have been like for the submariners – pretty fucking gruesome, as it goes. 59 men shared 30-something bunks and priority was given to housing the weapons, so hot-bunking in the torpedo deck was pretty much the norm. They would have eaten their fresh food in the first few days of their mission and seem to have survived on rations of tinned provisions and salami.
It’s possible to join a small tour group and explore the inside and, although we all had tickets to do that, I decided against it on the grounds of claustrophobia – but the boys went in and came out again suitably impressed. Meanwhile, I learned how to dive a full-size submarine (turns out I’m better at this than landing a space shuttle. Who’d’a thunk it?!) and decoded a couple of messages on an enigma machine.
On the way out, we passed some posters advertising for women to join the navy. I’m happy to say the world of gender equality has made real progress in the last 70 or so years, because these really were a whole world of go fuck yourself…
We moved into the space gallery, which was exciting for many reasons. One of which was that this is Tim’s field of expertise and he was excited to show me the ablating heat shield on the rear of the Gemini shuttle – and I was excited to learn he has a piece at his office! Super cool…. well. Super heated. But still, pretty cool! Those shuttles are teeny tiny. The astronaut didn’t have space to turn much more than his head – and his ass was less than 6 inches from deep space, which must not have been a terribly reassuring thought.
There were a couple of guardians discussing University of Oxford at the foot of the Apollo 8… they were talking a fair amount of nonsense, and I was super tempted to chip in…. but I decided it would be very uncool to be That Person. So I let it go… thereby earning a NASA badge for my denim jacket, I feel – only sadly the shop didn’t have any.
Then we headed to the tractor exhibit. My small son – when he *was* a small son and not a hulking 21-year old streak of a man – was an absolute terror for a tractor. Someone gave him an encyclopaedia of tractors and the 5-year old he used to be memorised each and every single fucking one of them. Every one. He could tell his John Deeres from his Fords from his Massey Fergusons, and identify each model from each marque by the radiator grille alone. Car rides with him were a joy, let me tell you. So imagine my excitement to discover the museum had a whole floor of tractors. Actually, it turned out to be one 
ENORMOUS tractor (a John Deere. I know you were wondering) and an even larger combine harvester. Both of which were available for ‘driving’ by small enthusiastic visitors. So Josh was persuaded to treat his inner five year old to the delight of ‘driving’ a combine harvester. We had to wait for an actual five year old to finish first; and as I pushed him into the driver’s seat, he asked plaintively, “Am I being punished for something?” and I muttered “That fucking encyclopaedia!!” Just look at the delight on his little face!!
The storm gallery was next. I honestly felt like a small child in a very large sweetshop! The exhibits are very hands-on. We built a tornado – and then stopped it by walking around it on the counter-rotation. We made an avalanche in an *enormous* tilted wheel of sand. We created a tsunami, and made a magnetic car float over a track. We projected rainbows over the roof and I shot a hot air balloon high into the ceiling, and played with Van de Graaff generators. We watched lightning being created in a huge Tesla coil suspended in the sky. We stood in wind tunnels and experience 80mph blowing straight up our jackets. It was *so* much fun. So much. (So much, in fact, that I don’t seem to have taken many photos of it all!) I could have stayed and played for hours, but the boys wanted to look at cars.
We saw galleries of cars, of bicycles, an extruded human body (it was a little alarming to find myself coming nose to penis with a…. well…. penis, if I’m honest). We saw planes hanging from the roof, and a very brief view of an enormous model railway and model of the city below them. In truth, I feel we only touched the surface of all the things we could have done. We passed a really happy, really immersively absorbing four hours there and could have stayed longer, but they close at 4pm; a fact that had entirely escaped me in the planning stage…
So we abandoned the Field Museum, which shuts at 5pm. We realised the gangster tours left at 11am and 1pm, so we’d missed that opportunity; and with that we jumped in a taxi to ChinaTown. Which was, frankly, underwhelming. It’s clearly a pretty deprived area. We saw our first beggars and more homeless than I’ve noticed anywhere else. Lots of shut shops and very little of interest. The one building that was advertised as interesting was very ornate, but filled with junk stalls. There was a square which, I suspect, might have been more interesting on a holiday or market day. But other than that and some unusual graffiti, there was little to see and it wasn’t long before we were taking the El back into town.
In town, we paused at Berghof for a couple of beers. They’re doing Oktoberfest and it’s obviously a popular end of the working day venue. But we were very soon back to the station, and on the train home again.
Today has been a quiet day. This evening, we’re all heading out to Wisconsin (the state, rather than a venue of the same name) to a lake house for the weekend. The weather is going to be variable, but we’re planning some walking and hopefully a bit of kayaking and, I’m sure, a good deal of convivial family living. I’m hoping to see some wildlife and the odd bird…
This morning, Sissy and I hit the gym. Her trainer, Ashley, super enjoyed the two of us taking the piss out of each other. Honestly. Who uses their boobs as an excuse not to execute a proper press up?? The bragging mare…! Then we hit the delights of Target. There aren’t many retail outlets I’m intrigued by, but Target was one of them. I resisted the delights of singing, dancing Moana plushies for the grandchildren, and put back almost twice as much as I picked up…. and still managed to spend a ridiculous amount of money!
We have explored the culinary delights of apple fritters (bleugh….) and Reese’s peanut butter cups – which are surprisingly good! And, generally, mellowed out. Sissy saw a coyote, this morning, crossing the road in front of her. I am resolved to get up earlier, next week….
Hanoi to Angkor Wat (and afterwards) 