summercomfort | Museum of Science and Industry

Wow, the Museum of Science and Industry was amazing. It's like the Tech, except not as obnoxiously tech-oriented. They have this Titanic exhibit that was absolutely wonderful. ::lovelove:: It had models of first,second,third class rooms, gave dining menus and utensils, personal stories of certain individuals.... There as a room with the grand staircase + glass dome, a promenade with stars and breeze and sound of ocean below... the steerage section had the groan and throbbing noise of the engines while first class had classical music and art nouveau metalwork, there's relics that pertain to each room, like ship's telegraph (those wheel switch things in the movie), and shoes and docking instructions.... There's also a room that had different accounts of the crashing into the iceberg: some said it was an extremely loud noise, others barely heard it. There was also an iceberg that we could put our hands against, just to feel how cold it was (and that the water was colder...) Quite chilling. There was a real piece of wreckage from deck C (first class), and a very helpful person to answer questions. For example, I now know that there were many charity funds that raised money to help the widows and orphans whose husband/father died on the ship. A lot of first class survivors donated money. He also talked about how it wouldn't have been possible for the California to have gotten there any faster, because the captain would have to wake and organize all the crew, and then go through very rough waters at the top speed of 9 knots per hour... they would have gotten there about 2+ hours after seeing the rockets, if they realized what it meant. Also some interesting things about some of the lawsuit papers sinking in the Lusitania. o.O;;; We all got boarding passes when we went in, so at the end, there were "survivor/lost" lists. My guy died. But looking at overall proportions, about 3/5 of the first class, 1/2 of the second class, 1/3 of the steerage and 1/3 of the crew survived.

Anyway, lots of other interesting exhibits... U-505, the submarine, how city plumbing works, genetics (cloning a mouse, etc), business executive choices, farm machinery, 1900's main street, IMAX show on special effects... I went in at 7:30 fully expecting to be out by 9. It was 11:30 before I forced myself to leave (I didn't want to get stranded because the last bus left at 12.) That was such a fun trip! We had the whole museum to ourselves, there was food and drink served by elegant waiters at a central area... desserts, knowledge... ah, the geekiness.

I probably missed another phone call from parents, but I think I'm posting enough in my LJ to keep everyone happily confused.

And my roomie still isn't back from the concert. Oh well, going to sleep now