Best Second Annual Chicago Birthday, pt. 3

First of all, did you guys realize blogger was down at the end of last week? Even if I had had the time to finish these Chicago posts I wouldn't have been able to. Anyway . . .

Sunday afternoon I told my mom goodbye because she had meetings that afternoon and wouldn't be back before I went back to New York.  I wish I had smiled better for this picture, but these are my folks and they look good.



Before Jeff drove back to Nashville we made a visit to the Museum of Science and Industry (this is what it looks like by the back entrance, if you didn't know).

We were there to see the U505 exhibit.  What am I talking about?  Well, during WWII German U-boats caused a lot of trouble for the Allied forces, as these mannequins show us.

And as many a display told us.

And as various interactive dioramas also showed us.

BUT did you know that us, the US, caught a U-boat off the coast of Africa?  And that it's at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago now?  And that it's the greatest museum exhibit you could possibly imagine?  All true!

For $8 you can take a tour of the inside of the U505 and it's totally worth it.  Did you know it only had two bathrooms?  And that the coolest room on board was 93 degrees?  And that everyone would go the whole trip without bathing (meaning 60 days or so).  That's why they nicknamed them swine boats.



One of the big scores of capturing the U505 was there was a German Enigma code machine on board along with hundreds of pounds (or was it thousands?) of code books.  An engima machine could generate something like seventeen septillion permutations of its code.  Sheesh!

The U505 exhibit provides children with an unusually high amount of opportunities to play like they're Nazis, though. Which is a little odd.

For example, via simulator I successfully navigated my Nazi submarine away from Allied depth charges and was rewarded with a sticker for the accomplishment.

After our visit to the U505, which we were at for about two hours but probably could have spent four hours at, we drove around Hyde Park looking for a certain home . . .

Can you guess the owner of this house?  Perhaps click the photo and read the signs for important clues.  Or click here for the answer.

Then we told Jeff goodbye, took a long ride on the L, ate a proper Sunday dinner, and caught our flight out of Midway.

Goodbye, Chicago!

During the flight I did this.  With my foot.  On accident.  Another thing that happened during the flight: the pilot announced the news about Osama Bin Laden.  But I was asleep and missed it.

Hello, Newark.  You've never looked so good.

All in all, it was a super-awesome weekend.  Can't wait for my Third Annual Chicago Birthday.  Will you be there?  Stop being lame, just say yes.