Sure, the nine permanent exhibits of this enormous museum examine just about every aspect of life on Earth, but its pleasures are in the details: chicks struggling to peck their way out of shells in the baby chick hatchery, the whimsical little high jinks of wooden puppets in the Cabaret Mechanical Theatre and the minuscule furnishings in Colleen Moore’s fairy castle. If you want to go big, explore the German U-boat captured during WWII ($8 extra to tour it), take a (rather frightening) tour through industrial agriculture, or climb into the life-sized shaft of a coal mine.
The main building of the museum served as the Palace of Fine Arts at the landmark 1893 World’s Expo, which was set in the surrounding Jackson Park. When you’ve had your fill of space capsules, coal mines and Zephyrs at the museum, the park makes an excellent setting to recuperate.
