Sightseeing Day:
- First Division Museum
- Downtown Chicago
Because of the weather, we decided to sightsee at attractions that were indoors.
First we headed for Cantigny Park south of our camping location. This park has quite a few attractions, but we were there to see the First Division Museum. It took us about 1.5 hours to get there. When we arrived, the skies were starting to get darker and darker.
We walked through the Tank Park portion of the park toward the museum. It was quite an unusual experience to see such lush gardens surrounding U.S. Army tanks. Usually, tanks are in parking lots or dirt fields. Quite a few school children were climbing all over them, which was kind of cool. Again, usually when tanks are present, there are signs forbidding climbing on them. I thought it was educational to let the kids have a hands-on (or feet-on) experience with the tanks.
We went through the museum not quite sure how "hokey" it might be. But, to our surprise, this was one of the better museums we have visited. You walked along a path that wound down and under the museum. The path took you on a tour of our war participation beginning with WWI and through Desert Storm (these are wars in which the First Division participated). WWI and WWII were the most elaborate presentations. As you can see in one of the photos, they presented the video as if you were in a real installation, such as using field phones to listen to the video. One presentation had us sitting in the bottom of a landing craft to listen to and view video of the landing at Normandy. At the end of the video, the screen rose and you walked out as if you were landing on Omaha Beach. Quite impressive. At the end of the path for this part of the exhibit, there was a cement pill-box bunker that you had to walk through (you can see it in the picture).
While we were sitting on ammunition boxes in the Vietnam jungle watching the video presentation, a group of approximately 25 school children descended upon us in the middle of the video. The guide was quite noisy getting them all seated. The entire video was approximately 6 minutes long. But, after they were all seated and began to watch (about 45 seconds later), the tour guide told them it was time to move on. Dave and I both looked at each other and wondered what they could possibly learn in that 45 seconds in the middle of the video! Such a shame, because it did have so much to say about the experiences the men went through. Your education tax dollars hard at work!
Of course, for those of you who have read our Albuquerque blog, you can see I couldn't resist taking a picture of the importance of the carrier pigeon!
After the museum tour, Dave and I went down to the library where he found a book about Vietnam with newspaper clippings from that era.
By the time we left, it had been storming quite a bit, but the rains parted for us to make it to the car without getting wet. Then, the skies opened up again, and it rained for most of the day until we got to downtown Chicago.
Naper Settlement was a place we were really looking forward to visiting. However, it's a 19th Century village that's walking from building to building. We had to scrap that attraction due to the heavy rain. But, we did drive by it to see if we should return. It looked intriguing, and it reminded us of Williamsburg on a much smaller scale. So, we will try to visit it someday.
Our next look-see was to Lockport. This town is supposed to be the best preserved canal town in America. Unfortunately, we drove around with detailed directions for over an hour trying to find it. We finally gave up when we passed over the river about 3 miles north of where we should have been. So, this will be a return attraction as well.
I have been planning for several months to surprise Dave with a visit to a carver's museum. He loves to carve, and if any of you have seen the chain-saw masterpiece that he created at our lake house, which he brought to our house on Lamar Lane, you'll know he needs to observe those who know what they are doing! He really likes to whittle, so I was really excited. When we drove up, he said, "So, will you let me buy a knife?" To me, that meant he was really looking forward to touring this museum.
As we drove in, another carload of folks arrived. But, as we looked at the buildings, we got the eerie feeling this was going to be a no-go. The doors were locked and we walked around trying to open not only the museum, but the gift shop as well. We could tell it was not closed because it was a day that they normally close (they were supposed to be open Monday through Saturday 10-4), but it was closed for a while or for good. I tried calling the number in the AAA Tour book and left a message. But, the message was not one that identified the number/place I was calling. So, I think it's kaput. I was so VERY disappointed.
So, on to the next adventure. We had thought we'd tackle downtown Chicago on Wednesday and take the commuter train into town. However, after driving so much today, we decided this might not happen. Therefore, Dave drove downtown Chicago so that I could at least see it and Lake Michigan. The fog had rolled in, so in the attached pictures, the blur you see is fog--not the results of a bad photographer...of course.
I think poor Dave drove for about 6 hours today, and all we did was drive around the Chicago area. So, by the time we arrived back at camp, we decided tomorrow would just be an R&R and get-ready-to-leave day.
We just ate leftovers, watched a bit of TV (I also crocheted), and called it an early night. I must say, we don't miss our early bird sing-song, but it sure is bright here at 5:30 in the morning. So, now we are talking about getting black-out curtains--which has no coincidence with the First Division Museum we visited today, I'm sure.
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