Day 3: Sunday was a gorgeous day in Chicago. The weather was mild and the sky was blue with some puffy, friendly clouds. We ventured downtown and parked in a strange underground parking lot that was like… under the road. Kind of weird. Not cheap, either. But we were parked on the viking princess level. Seriously. There was a picture of the viking princess to help us, too.

We went museuming. Even by the lake the breeze was mild, not the bitter cold of the day before. Went to Adler first. It was pretty cool. It was neat seeing an entire building dedicated to being a planetarium. Makes our planetarium look more lame than I ever thought possible. There was a nifty IMAX show about black holes. I bought a CityPass, but that was a terrible idea considering I get into a couple of those museums free. I’ll know better next time.

Next we went to the Field Museum. It was awesome. So awesome. I think I could live in there for about a week and just barely scratch the surface. We looked at exhibits about different cultures. Awesome artifacts. It was very much a traditional “look but don’t touch” museum, but I looooved it. We also saw just a bit of the birds. So many lovely stuffed birdies! I really want to go back right now and just spend days exploring that place.

Then we went back to the hotel and chilled for a bit before we went out to Giordanos for some Chicago-style pizza. This pizza means business, seriously. I took about half my small pizza home. Really, if we were smart we could have all split one medium pizza. Of course we all have such different taste in toppings that there was no chance of success. I liked the pizza a lot. (More than St. Louis style, but don’t tell anyone!)

Day 4: Since I finally slept for real Sunday night, I was totally ready for Monday! We went to Science and Industry. The parking was a lovely $14! Take that, St. Louis natives with St. Louis Syndrome! Things cost money in the real world!

The museum was really big. Really, really big. We hit the DNA area first. I like the design of things there. Very clean, professional looking, and lots of space between exhibits. Space makes a difference. If your exhibits are crowded together, things look cluttered. This place was absolutely not cluttered. Technology seemed more embedded in the exhibits, too, with actual scientific tools around the place. They had a little opinion poll thing that showed the results of what people thought about biotech questions. They had a nifty quote wall. They had a gene sequencer in their DNA demo area.

Then we saw a ginormous model train set. It was the coolest thing ever. Brought me back to childhood days of setting up my toys just right, only to keep others from playing with them at all.

Then we saw Dinosaurs Alive in their Omnimax, which looks just like ours. Saw a bit of the space exhibits before mom called, panicking about the supposed impending ice storm of all doom.

I’d love to go back and see the rest of the museum at some point. I was really intrigued by the demos. Would love to see one or two of them. I always like to compare. I’d also like to see their other galleries. Oh well. Next time!

The drive back was long. Very long. I slept a little, but by the time we reached that last truck stop and bathroom break I just wanted to be home. Thankfully, the ice storm of doom was rather overrated and I got home fine.