To the Museum by Train
For our final full day in Chicago, we decided to go to the Museum of Science and Industry. It has been many years since we visited there, and we could get there easily by train.
Millennium Station is only a few blocks from our hotel. But it has been years since I rode any trains in Chicago, and I got confused and ended up buying CTA tickets instead of Metra tickets. Fortunately, the Metra staff corrected me and I got the necessary tickets to go down to 55th-56th-57th station where the MSI is located. Unfortunately, I ended up with extra CTA tickets that I did not really need.
We took the Metra Electric train south...
...and walked the short distance to the Museum of Science and Industry.
The signature display from our point of view is the Pioneer Zephyr.
What an experience it would have been to have been on board this train when it made its high-speed "dawn to dusk" run between Chicago and Denver.
The train didn't carry that many passengers, but it had a mail compartment. In those days, it was considered that the mail contract paid the cost of the train, while the passengers were the profit.
Moving on to the Transportation gallery, the high-speed theme continued with locomotive 999, which set the high-speed record of 112.5 mph with its high drivers. As near as we can tell, the wheels it currently wears are not as big as when it made its high-speed run.
Kuma Bear got his close up. Bears don't read very well. Besides, Bears go where Bears want to go.
There is a replica of Stephenson's Rocket in the museum.
The Great Train Story is a huge model train layout representing Chicago to Seattle.
I'm amused to see that the model is now the only way to see the now-demolished and little-missed Alaskan Way viaduct along the Seattle waterfront.
In the space exhibit is the command module from Apollo 8...
...and Aurora 7, the second Mercury mission to orbit the Earth.
Nearby is an exhibit about the history of ships...
...and cars.
In the farming exhibit, Lisa and Kuma drove a combine harvester simulator.
We spent most of the day at the museum, including having a light lunch we could eat outdoors safely, but around 3 PM we started making our way back to the hotel.
While we waited for our train back to downtown, a South Shore Line train called on the outbound platforms.
One of our plans for using our Chicago time was to ride the South Shore Line out as far as we could and then back, just to experience it. However, we would have needed to start earlier in the day and make it our main errand.
Returning to Millennium Station, we made one final stop at Bockwinkle's and headed to our hotel room to have some dinner from the remaining food we'd stocked up. There was still some time left to do something after we ate, and Lisa suggested that we might as well use those CTA tickets we bought by mistake.
Walking over to the Loop, we boarded a train heading north out of the loop for a while...
...then we changed directions and came back downtown, riding around the loop to Randolph/Wabash. We did not have anywhere in particular to go, but we got a ride on the El.
We walked back to the hotel for the last time. Earlier today, I was able to arrange for a 1 pm checkout on Friday. Our train back to Nevada is scheduled to depart at 2 PM Friday, so we should probably get out of the hotel about Noon. As we're in a bedroom, we'll be able to use the Metropolitan Lounge, which is probably the best place in the USA to wait for a train.
I may not do any updates on Friday and Saturday, as I won't have internet access most of that time. You can follow me on Twitter for occasional photos. Although considering how tired I am, maybe I'll just sleep my way back to Reno.
Millennium Station is only a few blocks from our hotel. But it has been years since I rode any trains in Chicago, and I got confused and ended up buying CTA tickets instead of Metra tickets. Fortunately, the Metra staff corrected me and I got the necessary tickets to go down to 55th-56th-57th station where the MSI is located. Unfortunately, I ended up with extra CTA tickets that I did not really need.
We took the Metra Electric train south...
...and walked the short distance to the Museum of Science and Industry.
The signature display from our point of view is the Pioneer Zephyr.
What an experience it would have been to have been on board this train when it made its high-speed "dawn to dusk" run between Chicago and Denver.
The train didn't carry that many passengers, but it had a mail compartment. In those days, it was considered that the mail contract paid the cost of the train, while the passengers were the profit.
Moving on to the Transportation gallery, the high-speed theme continued with locomotive 999, which set the high-speed record of 112.5 mph with its high drivers. As near as we can tell, the wheels it currently wears are not as big as when it made its high-speed run.
Kuma Bear got his close up. Bears don't read very well. Besides, Bears go where Bears want to go.
There is a replica of Stephenson's Rocket in the museum.
The Great Train Story is a huge model train layout representing Chicago to Seattle.
I'm amused to see that the model is now the only way to see the now-demolished and little-missed Alaskan Way viaduct along the Seattle waterfront.
In the space exhibit is the command module from Apollo 8...
...and Aurora 7, the second Mercury mission to orbit the Earth.
Nearby is an exhibit about the history of ships...
...and cars.
In the farming exhibit, Lisa and Kuma drove a combine harvester simulator.
We spent most of the day at the museum, including having a light lunch we could eat outdoors safely, but around 3 PM we started making our way back to the hotel.
While we waited for our train back to downtown, a South Shore Line train called on the outbound platforms.
One of our plans for using our Chicago time was to ride the South Shore Line out as far as we could and then back, just to experience it. However, we would have needed to start earlier in the day and make it our main errand.
Returning to Millennium Station, we made one final stop at Bockwinkle's and headed to our hotel room to have some dinner from the remaining food we'd stocked up. There was still some time left to do something after we ate, and Lisa suggested that we might as well use those CTA tickets we bought by mistake.
Walking over to the Loop, we boarded a train heading north out of the loop for a while...
...then we changed directions and came back downtown, riding around the loop to Randolph/Wabash. We did not have anywhere in particular to go, but we got a ride on the El.
We walked back to the hotel for the last time. Earlier today, I was able to arrange for a 1 pm checkout on Friday. Our train back to Nevada is scheduled to depart at 2 PM Friday, so we should probably get out of the hotel about Noon. As we're in a bedroom, we'll be able to use the Metropolitan Lounge, which is probably the best place in the USA to wait for a train.
I may not do any updates on Friday and Saturday, as I won't have internet access most of that time. You can follow me on Twitter for occasional photos. Although considering how tired I am, maybe I'll just sleep my way back to Reno.