The last days of our Chicago visit

So by now we’ve had pretty good luck in Chicago and we were hoping that today was going to bring us the same. For Sunday’s agenda we were going to go to the Navy Pier and then head over to the Museum of Science and Industry. By now Daryl was getting pretty confident on how to get around and I’m just glad that he was driving and not me. There was so many people and cars – yikes! But like I said, he was doing a great job and the first place to see was the Navy Pier. With the weather being just a little bit chilly this morning, after we knew where in the city the Pier was,  we decided to come back after the Museum. Maybe it might warm up a little bit. So off to the next Museum we went. Now I know that Daryl was so excited to see the U-505 Submarine and I was thinking that maybe there was some stuff there for me to check out also. So after we got our tickets, off to see what was actually in this building. You know when you think that if you  see one building that nothing else can be any bigger? Well, that’s what I thought yesterday, but this building might have been even bigger!

Just one small section of the museum

So like I said, we bought special tickets to check out this German U boat that when it was captured it literally changed the war. We were not disappointed with our tour.

The German U boat

We laughed where this shows  “Stopp”

Even for someone like me who doesn’t really get into that much history stuff  I even liked it. I know, go figure! But after that, we bought special tickets to see another display area. This one was called Inside Out, and it was soooo cool and I loved it!  What it was were all different animals and humans that they cut apart and preserved them so you can see all the internal organs and the blood veins. I don’t think I can explain it very well, and I was just amazed on how they figured out how to preserve the flesh and organs. Just amazing. They wouldn’t let any cameras inside this area, but I did take a picture of one of the posters to give an idea on what some of the things inside that we saw.

The skin taken off to show the muscle structure

After checking out the tornadoes, airplanes, a huge toy train section, and this is where the farm display was that I put in my last post. (yea.. I got my museums mixed up) we had a pretty full day.

HUGE working train display that shows the relationship between Chicago and the route of incoming/outgoing freight

But then I still wanted to go to the Pier. After telling Daryl how cool it will be, it didn’t take long until we were walking down the pier just checking it out. Now I think that the pier would be really fun in the summer time because there are a lot of things to do – well… when it was warmer. But the one thing that we could do was to go on the Ferris wheel.

The Ferris Wheel at the Pier

It’s a 150 foot high Ferris Wheel and it only takes 7 minutes to ride it. But you know what? Daryl was kind of right. It got a little bit chilly riding it. But honestly, if you are probably only going to be someplace once – you should experience as much as you can –  right?

Daryl looks a little cold, but still the ride was really fun

But I took this picture of Daryl and he did look a little cold, so to warm ourselves up, off to an Irish Pub for some good food and atmosphere.

The next day was Monday and we started back home. We knew we were going to need gas, so we planned on stopping in Galena to not only fill the car back up, but to also grab a bite to eat. I about died laughing when Daryl was wondering what people actually do when they go to Galena. I was telling him that you are supposed to spend a day just walking around, looking a the shops, and just shopping. He said that there was no way he could ever in his whole lifetime do that. Humm… I wonder how he felt about this? Anyway, I told him that I have been there before and I’ve gone with a bunch of girls and we had a great time. He just couldn’t believe that this sounded like a ‘great time’. Too funny! Anyway after a HUGE dinner, we headed back to the Iowa and the farm.

This was a one portion meal – Calzone

The weather was so nice and we actually turned on the air conditioner. We stopped long enough to take a picture of a bar sign that Daryl just loves. Some day we’ll just have to stop in and check it out. After the huge dinner we just ate, stopping was the last thing that we were thinking of doing.It wasn’t long and we were going through the hills by the river. I think it’s funny how the land changes so much and so fast.

Rolling hills just waiting to turn green

But soon we were pulling into our yard and it did feel good to get home. My Mom used to say that to make you feel really good when you were gone for awhile was to go outside to do chores. You know, I think it was just a way for us kids when we were growing up to get our chores done. But even though I didn’t have to do any chores when we got home,  I did go to get Reno from the kennel. By the end of the night, we were tired. The weather turned colder and we couldn’t believe that we had to turn the fire place on. Where did the nice weather go anyway? Now that the long weekend was over and tomorrow it’s back to work for both of us, it was sure nice to get away for a couple of days,  and what a great couple of days we had!