Thursday (Day 4):

Yes, there was a robbery in our hotel!  It happened at a quarter ‘til 8 this morning at the front desk… while Norman was in the breakfast room right next to the front lobby! 

He didn’t realize that anything had happened until the place started swarming with cops.  They taped off the front door with the yellow crime scene tape and proceeded to question the ones at the front desk. 

Thankfully, no one was hurt and the robber only got away with $300… probably drug money.  He was wearing a mask, but the guy at the front desk told the police that he would still be able to identify him if he saw a picture of him, so he went with them in one of the police cars.

After having a rather rough start, though, we ended up having a good day.  The boys and I went to the Museum of Science and Industry this time, which was also along Lake Michigan.  It was misting out and foggy, so it took us a little while to find it.  And when I did, I wasn’t sure where to park.  After I found a spot, however, a security guard came over to us and said that this parking lot was just for the workers.  He was really nice and ended up being a God-send!  When I asked him where the visitor parking lot was, he gave me directions to the one underground which would cost us $16.  But then he went on to explain that if I wanted to park for free, he would direct me to another route that would take me around by the Henry Crown Space Center.  Yes!!!

And, since “space” is a big interest in our family right now, this was a good place to start.

At 10:50, we saw the “Grand Canyon Adventure” in the Omnimax Theater.  This film took us on an exhilarating river-rafting adventure down the Colorado River.  The scenery was beautiful!  Some day, I’d like to see the Grand Canyon in person, but this was good enough for now.  Besides, this took us places that I’ll probably never get to in real life.

Next, we took an on-board tour of the actual U-505 submarine from aft to fore.  The history behind this sub was very interesting, especially since it was the only German U-boat captured during WWII.

The exhibit surrounding the U-505 had nearly 200 artifacts, including an authentic German Enigma machine, a T5 acoustic torpedo, historic film footage, photographs, radio transmissions and audio narratives from the veterans of the U.S. Navy who made the capture on June 4, 1944… 2 days before D-Day.  Aboard the captured U-boat, they had found the German codebook and other secret materials which assisted Allied code breaking operations.

Only one of the U-505 crewmen died during the battle.  The others were rescued and interned at a U.S. POW camp.  However, they were kept isolated because the Navy didn’t want it to leak out that they had captured the U-boat due to all of the top secret information involved.  The prisoners’ families were informed that the crew had all died and didn’t know any differently until they were released in 1947.

After we were finished with this exhibit (which took a while!), I looked at our map to see where to go next and that’s when I realized that we were less than ¼ of the way through the museum and only had ½ the day left!  I informed the boys that we really needed to hustle!  I was starting to understand why it was considered the largest science museum in the Western Hemisphere!

It was so hard, though, to hurry along!  There were just too many fun things to see and do!

This up-to-date John Deere combine was in the “Farm Tech” section.  I took these pictures for my dad, who is a retired farmer:

Another section that slowed us down was “Fast Forward… Inventing The Future”.  This exhibit intrigued our Speedy Gonzalez…

…and our Future City Builder.

The boys also enjoyed seeing the “Spirit of America”, which is the world’s fastest car…

…and the carefully crafted replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer, also dubbed “The Spirit of Glen Ellyn”.

Looking down in the “Transportation Gallery”, we could watch 34 trains on a cross-country journey race from Chicago to Seattle through realistic terrain and cityscapes.

The boys also wanted to check out the inside of a real airplane (or maybe just rest their weary feet!  J), so this was our final stop before the museum closed at 4:00.

No, we didn’t see near all of the displays!  Even now, as I look at the museum’s website, I see sooo many things that I wish that we could’ve seen.  This is definitely a 2-day attraction!

Traffic was really bad today (Chicagoans must start their weekends early – ha!), so we were a little late picking up Norman.  That was okay, though, since it gave him time to hang out at Mc Donald’s with his laptop.  J

The boys and I had skipped lunch to give us more time at the museum, so we decided that the IHOP was the best place to fill our empty tummies.  Now, you might wonder why we didn’t eat at more exotic restaurants while we were in Chicago.  If it were just Norman and me, we would have.  But, with the boys, we decided to go to the “tried and true” eateries.  We wanted them filled up instead of going back to our hotel room and saying, “I’m hungry!” 

Needless to say, we were exhausted… and our feet ached!  So, the guys went back to the pool.  And me?  Well, I was hungry, so I got me a bag of peanut M&M’s from the vending machine.  ;-)

(Coming up… the Final Day)