The Great US Road Trip: Learning Some History and Having a Sausage and Beer

Chicago, IL

Chicago History Museum

Today we took the bus to the Chicago History Museum. We had heard the original "L" train is there so we wanted to see it and we get in free with our NARM Pass. It's east of us right near Lake Michigan. When we left the house it was 75 degrees and when we got to the museum it was foggy and 60 degrees. It really reminded us of San Francisco. The museum was cool but I am sure we would have enjoyed it more if we lived here and had more context. There were a lot of things that didn't hit home because we weren't locals.

The Entrance

It's always good to see neon right away.

The lady at the front desk knew we were out of town and asked where we were from. We told her Washington and she asked what we were doing next and we told her we were going to a Polish Grocery Store so she directed us to the Back Home Polish Chicago exhibit.

It was very interesting but there weren't many things that made good photographs. This is the Chicago area map and it showed the neighborhoods that the emigrants from Poland settled in.

I did see this Blackhawks puck signed by Eddie Olczyk in 2004. Eddie had a 16 year career playing Hockey in the NHL on the Chicago Blackhawks, The LA Kings (Go Kings Go), The NY Rangers, where he won a Stanley Cup, and a few other teams. He also coached The Penguins for 3 Seasons and then went on to be a commentator. He currently commentates on Seattle Kraken Games for The Root Network.

The next exhibit we saw was all about The Chicago Fire. It seems every great city gets destroyed and rebuilt.

The Burning City - Juan Pablo Ruiz

Now "Hot Time in the Old Town" is running through my head.

Again there wasn't a lot to take photos of but there were a lot of videos that portrayed scenes using Rod Puppets. It was pretty cool or hot I guess.

The cooler real objects were things they found melted together by the intense heat of the fire. This was a bucket of nails.

and a bag of marbles

Two pocket watches fused together by the fire

Chicago Fire Souvenirs

This was why we came, the Original L Train.

It was really pretty.

A model of the Chicago Travel and Transportation Building. It was build for The Chicago World's Fair in 1933. If I could time travel I would go to many of the World's Fairs including San Francisco, Seattle, and Chicago.

Chicago is another City with a great flag. It was our favorite before seeing and noticing the St. Louis Flag. We noticed an exhibit with the Chicago Flag only having 2 stars so we had to do some quick research. The Stars are Six Pointed instead of Five Pointed. The Six Pointed Stars weren't seen on any other flags in 1917. The 3rd Star was added in 1933 to commemorate the 1933 Worlds Fair and the fact that it was the 2nd largest city in the US. The Fourth Star was added in 1939. There have been talks about adding more stars but that hasn't happened yet.

Polish Market, Yarn Shop and Brewery

On our walk home from Avondale Bowl, read about that here if you want, we saw a closed Polish Market as well as a Yarn Shop and we wanted to go back when they were open so today was the day. We took the bus back to our place to get warmer clothes and then walked to Firefly Fiber Arts Studio and Kurowski's Sausage. On the walk to these two places we saw a brewery so we decided to stop by there on the way home.

Donna quickly found a ball of yarn that she wanted

W also bought some candy

and some cured meats.

When we got to Hopewell Brewing we each ordered a beer and then whipped out our sausages and tried them. They were good but will be better when slightly heated.