Mitch got a whole week off for spring break this year so we decided to go down to Chicago and see a few sights. We had heard of a museum where you could go into a coal mine which we thought sounded pretty cool so our first stop was the Museum of Science and Industry that's right along Lake Michigan in downtown Chicago. We planned on only staying a few hours but it was sooo big and had so many exhibits that we ended up staying most of the day there. We saw an exhibit on genetics and how it affects different variations in each individual, and we walked through gallery filled with transportation history, including engine number 999 which set a record as the fastest steam locomotive, and the Spirit of St. Louis which set a land record at the salt flats in Utah. We walked through an exhibit that talked about agriculture and why it is so important to our nation. It was sponsored by John Deere so they had a big tractor and a combine. Mitch and I had a little learning moment as we had always thought it was "columbine" and not combine. There was an exhibit on energy, on technology, and the future of the oil industry. We also saw the most accurate and to scale fairy castle every made, it included in it's collection some of the smallest artifacts ever found in Greece and Rome and was full of fanciful things like a cradle rocking in one of the trees outside. Addie mostly just liked to run around and look at everything as fast as she could.
The highlight was of course going into coal mine. The electric lift was actually used in a 1930's coal mine in south Illinois although some modifications have been made to the elevator, like it now has steel sides so that you don't get a chink of elbow taken off as you go down the shaft. We didn't get to wear helmets with lamps, but it was fun none the less. They turned on some of the machines that they use and it was deafening just for the few seconds that they had it on, no wonder people lost there hearing. We got to see a long arm mine as well which is a machine that cuts horizontally and vertically along a wall while simultaneously holding up the roof of the mine. The one drawback I saw of this was that all the equipment they use to hold up the roof, which is a lot of mechanical arms is jut left in the shaft after they dig it, so all that waste is just left in the ground! Mitch had been in a coal mine before but, he has been reading a lot about energy especially coal and oil and the usage of it so he had a lot to say on the subject of misappropriation of resources as we walked through.
Our next stop was the Garfield Conservatory which is over a hundred years old. It has several plant houses including a tropical room, flower room, arid room and a show room. It was filled with some awesome greenery while we were there. One of the palm trees was started from a seed when the conservatory first opened and is one of the biggest of it's kind still living in a conservatory. Get this though, the seed of the double palm weighs over 50 pounds! No wonder they have a hard time getting it to grow! Addie loved splashing in the puddles that were all over on the floor and Mitch and I liked reading about all the plants.
We also had a guest on this trip. Flat Stanley came to visit from Colorado in an envelope, can you imagine squeezing yourself and all of your luggage into a letter sized envelope? Well he did and we introduced him to Wisconsin and he got to come to Illinois with us. Our nephew Jacob sent Flat Stanley to us so that Stan could learn a little bit about Wisconsin and then return to Jacob's class to tell the tale. Flat Stanley did everything with us and became part of the family as we showed him around.
We came home the next day after getting to go to the Chicago Temple. We also took Addie to the Betty Brinn Children's Museum which she loved. I think she just loved that there were so many things to do. A sandbox, a lawnmower, slides, a house with pots to bang on, faux plants to garden and that's only the toddler section!
It was really great to have Mitch home and to not have him studying for boards the whole time. I actually felt like a family again and Addie loved having Papa around.It was a great spring break for all of us.