Museum of Science & Industry

Pin It Now!

One of our favorite things to do in Chicago is to visit the numerous museums throughout the city.  We've previous visited the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum.  For several years, though, Michael has wanted to go to the Museum of Science & Industry.  He's an engineer, so this was right up his alley.

We woke up early, loaded up what seemed like half of the nursery (babies do not travel light!), and hit the road.  I was really excited about this trip because every other trip we've made to Chicago has been during colder weather.  The skyscrapers have always been shrouded in fog and Lake Michigan covered in ice.  

The day we went was beautiful.  Blue skies and sunshine.  As we approached the city, the skyscrapers came into view.  There were so many!  They were so tall!  Being from rural Missouri, it was pretty exciting.

My favorite part of the drive?  Seeing Lake Michigan.  It was so big!  And so blue!  The first words out of my mouth when I saw it were, "I see a boat!"  Okay, it was actually a ship.  My excitement was short-lived, though, as I had to help read road signs.

We finally arrived at the museum and went inside.  It was enormous.  We rode in a glass elevator (cue anxiety) to the top floor and started there.

The first exhibit we encountered was about the human body.  I love biology, so I thought it was really interesting.  There was a room that showed human fetal development from conception to full-term.  We didn't stay in that room long since we had so much museum to cover.

There are so many cool exhibits.  There are airplanes hanging from the ceiling, locomotives, and many antique automobiles.  You could actually go inside the largest airplane. 

They have a large space exhibit, including moon rocks and life-size models of the Mars rovers.

One of the neatest exhibits was the U-505 exhibit.  There is a full-size German U-Boat inside the museum.  It was captured off the coast of Africa and hauled across the Atlantic Ocean.

Michael and I really enjoyed walking around the museum.  As you can see in the photo above, Gene napped.  It's better than being fussy. :)

After we left MSI, we made a brief stop at IKEA and headed home.  It was a long day, but we had fun.