For our second day’s trip into Chicago, we went
to the Museum of Science and Industry.
This is a GREAT museum for people of all ages. There are too many exhibits to list here, but
some of them included information on tornados, storms, manned space flights,
trains, and planes.
Our first activity in the museum was a tour
through a “coal mine.” The tour takes
visitors down into a simulated coal mine within the museum where a guide
explains and demonstrates the working conditions and equipment used in
coalmines. The guide explained how
children were used to carry and place explosives in the mineshafts because they
didn’t have the strength to wield picks and shovels. Thank goodness for child labor laws.
Next, we toured the U-505, an actual WW II
German submarine that was captured in 1944 off the coast of Africa and towed
into Allied waters off Bermuda. The
surrounding exhibit explains the circumstances of the capture while the tour
inside the sub highlights the working and living conditions of submariners in
those days. Just think about a
three-month tour of duty without seeing the sunlight, working in 90-100 degree
temperatures and not being able to bathe during the tour.
Our final stop in the museum was an IMAX movie
“Born to be Wild.” This movie highlights
the efforts of wildlife teams in Kenya and Borneo rescuing endangered and
orphaned elephants and orangutans.
After returning to our campground, the group
went out for dinner at Joliet’s “best restaurant in town”, the Golden Corral.
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