So for the first few days of our annual trip to the US, we stayed at Christy's aunt and uncle in Bolingbrook, IL near Chicago (so thanks again Steve and Anna). Having never been to the city before, we decided to use the two days for visits to a few of the Windy City's many museums.

High up on my list was the Museum of Science and Industry . Not because I'm very particular to highly educational museums for kids, but because they have the only surviving type IX U-boat in an amazingly good condition. The display all around it is very well done, although I would have liked to see a little more about what it was like to live and work in one of these machines.

The short tour inside was, in any case, worth making reservations up front. At 1,90m I am probably a lot taller than the average WWII crewmember, but I could easily see how the other, shorter visitors were not exactly thrilled by the amount of space on board either. And there were only 15 or so of us, instead of the 60 men this vessel had on board during its final trip.

The second highlight of this museum was the temporary Star Wars exhibition. Oh boy, I finally got to see the actual models Lucas used for both the first and the second trilogy. I remember looking at the photos as a kid, imagining I was one of the modellers on such a project. That'd be cool (although I'm not complaining about my current job, mind you!).

It was pretty awesome to see the (big) Corellian Corvette and the relatively small model Star Destroyer of that very first scene. As a modeller, I knew that the people at Industrial Light and Magic had used bits and pieces of airplane, ship and tank models to bring detail to the starships and I had expected to see lots of more or less generic items. But lo and behold, here was the hull of a Jagdpanther model sticking out the side of the Millennium Falcon! Never noticed that while watching the movies.

On the second (and last) day of our visit, we went to the Shedd Aquarium - very nice - and the Chicago Institute of Art. Basically the ' Met' of the Midwest the museum houses a great variety of paintings, furniture, a collection of miniature houses and a small, but fairly exquisite exhibition of ancient artifacts. There was a bust of Hadrian - of course - and a head of Mars, some nice bronzes such as the lictor depicted here, coins and a beautiful Macedonian helmet that might very well turn up in the next issue of Ancient Warfare. 

Ancient items are rare enough in North America and certainly in the Midwest (another nice collection is at Toledo, Ohio, more about that later), but if you're ever in Chicago, go here.  

Next time we're in Chicago, we'll have to visit the Field Museum, which is said to have an excellent Egyptian collection. Then there's also the famous Chicago food scene to explore and I'd like to see a little more of the city when the weather is nicer. Cause, yeah, Chicago was fairly cool in the other sense of the word as well. Not too bad though and we managed to miss the worst of the weather that messed up numerous flights just before we arrived and after we left. I don't think we had anything to do with that though, honest...