Random Thoughts From Marybeth

Chicago Museum of Science and Industry

Our original plans for Friday were to have breakfast, check out of the hotel and go to the Museum of Science and Industry before leaving for home. We did the first two but our museum visit was delayed because it was closed until 1:00 for the Bush press conference.

I had found out earlier that morning that he would be at the museum but hadn't realized the whole place would be shut down. Considering the security check and wanding we went through to get into the restaurant, I should have figured that there was no way they would want to go through all that with the number of visitors the museum gets, especially with an announced presidential visit. But I had asked the hotel concierge if he knew of any problems in visiting the museum that morning - he didn't even know that Bush was going to be there. I also mentioned that we were going to a police officer outside of the restaurant. Neither said anything about it being closed until the afternoon.

So, we had one failed first attempt to visit followed by a couple of hours getting lost driving around Chicago. I would have been content to head home but I had promised that we would go there before we left so we waited. We were able to get in (to wait in line until it opened) when we returned at about 12:30.

I'm glad we waited. We got to tour the U-boat, see a giant model train layout, learn about coal mines, and see Sue the T-Rex:

This is part of a sign near the U-boat exhibit. I took a picture of it as a reminder that there was a time when designating information as classified really meant something.

People understood that war was, well, war. The ship that captured U-505 was part of Hunter-Killer Task Groups. A similar group now would probably be called "Protective Dolphin Pod" or something equally vague and, most importantly, PC.

The tour's interesting but I couldn't stop thinking about the Twilight Zone episode "Judgment Night" during it.