Today the forecast was for rain most of the day but the temperature was still above 30c, we had some indoor places to visit the first being the Chicago History Museum which was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. It was only about 3 stops on the bus so we were there in no time. As the name suggests it charts the how the city evolved from the native Americans to present day spread over 3 floors, one of the most interesting things to see was how much the arrival of the railroad made and how it changed the city.
It was definitely worth $14 to go in and we spent about 3 hours or so in there then had some lunch in café next door and I even found a Chicago pocket watch of the same design as I got in San Francisco so had to buy that, even though it was $25.
Next on the list was the Peggy Norbert Nature Museum which was only about a 15-minute ride on the bus, this was another good place to visit and has a butterfly house with hundreds of them flying about. It was lovely to sit in there for a while and just watch them fluttering about, I think we timed it right getting in here as you could hear and see the rain battering on the glass walls and roof, even though they were only heavy showers you wouldn't want to be caught in one.
The rest of the museum is dedicated to insect's and small invertebrates with breeding programs so they can be released back into the wild.
Out the back, there is a wetland area with raised pathways that is teeming with wildlife. The only downside to this place was the pavement out front so uneven it was hard to walk let alone push a wheelchair this continues through in the lobby area up to the payment desk then it's all flat and smooth which struck me as odd.
Just as we were about to leave the rain started to come down really heavy again but because it was so warm it wasn't the sort of day you wanted to wear a coat so it was time to hang around in the café for a bit until it had stopped.
When the rain stopped we made a short dash from there to the Lincoln Park Conservatory just in time to miss the next heavy shower. This place is a large Victorian conservatory on the edge of the zoo but we didn't have time to come in here the other day, it's a fantastic building with an amazing verity of tropical plants, there's even a couple of ponds in here as well and all of this is free of charge. We spent about an hour in here then decided to call it a day but not long after we left the rain started again so had to go into the cafe in the zoo as we were passing to shelter from the rain.
It was only a short walk to the bus stop and by now it was around 4:30, it takes about 30 minutes or so to get back to the hotel from but the traffic goes manic around here at this time of day so it ended up taking us around 45 minutes.
