Easter Trip - 2023

 We headed to Minnesota to spend Easter with our Daughter and her Family. As usual we took the travel opportunity to see various sites of interest along the way.

Strategic Air Command Museum

The Strategic Air Command Museum located outside of (Omaha Nebraska) has quite a collection of aircraft and aircraft history of many countries.

What an attention getter in the lobby

A B-17 catches your attention upon entry to the hangar

Decades of aircraft history are on display

A large collection of scale models are also on display

This is a later model of the B-17 which had enhanced gun protection for defense against head on attacks

Aircraft with Soviet markings are on display

Interesting cutaway showing the interior of a B-17 bomber

Minnesota Mall of America

There is a large Mall near Minneapolis that is a popular destination for both shopping and entertainment. One such destination is the 'Mirror Maze'. This consists of passage ways lined with mirrors that reflect each other and distort your sense of direction.

The builders of the Mirror Maze did a very good job of disguising the joints where the mirrors join the supports and matching these lines to where there are no mirrors. You are provided with plastic gloves to wear so no finger prints will be left on the mirrors as you work your way thru the Maze. 

We were in a mirror maze at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago that did have finger prints on the mirrors. They made it much easier to navigate, but kind of ruined the effect.

We were in the maze much longer than expected trying to find our way out.

Other mirrors distorted the height of the viewer

My Grandsons in company of Lego companions outside the Lego store.

This is quite the place to go and spend time

Superior Railroad Museum

This is a well done railroad museum found in the Duluth, MN downtown Railroad Station.

This is the view which you find when entering the railroad museum

Private Varnish luxury railcars were the private jets of the time period

Marker lights bring up the rear of the rail car.

This particular striped railcar is a self powered Budd Rail Diesel Car (RDC). These RDC's were used in the later years of railroad passenger service to reduce costs and keep rail passenger service alive. These came in all passenger, part baggage and part railroad post office versions. This is one of the few left.

I enjoy seeing the interiors of private passenger cars and seeing how folks travelled in the era before private jet aircraft

The Museum has several displays of how railroad china was used 

The railroad museum is located within the Duluth Train Station. The station has other displays including these of pottery with great glazing.

Two Harbors - Split Rock Light House

We drove up the North Shore Drive along the shores of Lake Superior and stopped to see the lighthouse at Split Rock. This was installed after a ship wreck at the base of the cliff the lighthouse is on. That ship wreck is a very popular dive site.

View of the Light House from the visitors center

Model of the Light House

Short Line

I was made aware by the Northfield Librarian of a shortline railroad outside of Northfield, MN. We followed the tracks to do a bit of rail fanning.

Glensheen

Glensheen, the Historic Congdon Estate is a 20,000 square foot mansion in Duluth, Minnesota operated by the University of Minnesota Duluth as a historic house museum. 

Glensheen sits on 12 acres of waterfront property on Lake Superior, has 39 rooms and is built in the Jacobean architectural tradition, inspired by the Beaux-Arts styles of the era. 

The mansion was constructed as the family home of Chester Adgate Congdon. The building was designed by Minnesota architect Clarence H. Johnston Sr., with interiors designed by William A. French Co. and the formal terraced garden and English style landscape designed by the Charles Wellford Leavitt firm out of New York. 

Construction began in 1905 and was completed in 1908. The home cost a total of $854,000, equivalent to more than $22 million in 2017. The home is a crowning example of design and craftmanship of the Midwestern United States in the early 20th century.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the summary.

View of GlenSheen when walking from the parking area

 

This is the view upon entering the front door

Stairway banister woodwork was beautiful

View of the lake through the stained glass windows

Each of the fireplaces throughout the home have a unique design. This was my favorite.

The stained glass in the interior doors was well done

The Lake Superior view from the formal garden is beautiful

View of Glensheen from the lake

Enjoying the Tour

Bong Historical Center

Richard Bong was an American WWII ace having downed 40 enemy aircraft. A Museum detailing his life and accomplishments is to be found in Superior, Wisconsin. It is very interesting.

This is a recreation of the actual P-38 aircraft Richard Bong flew.

Stories of his personal life and wedding explained his popularity with the American public

Richard Bong's wedding was a media event of the time

This is a part of a display showing the documents that were used to train how to identify enemy aircraft

This was a surprise display. These are actual parts from several WWII BF109 aircraft. These are in the actual colors used in WWII and are most helpful when determining colors to paint scale models.

Several displays of WWII weapons include this one of Japanese rifles

Lots to see in this museum and the people there were wonderful

Sadly, Richard Bong was sent home from the war theatre to prevent a potential propaganda issue should he be killed in combat. He raised money for war bonds and became a test pilot for emerging jet technology. It was in one of these jet aircraft test flights that he crashed and died at the age of 24.   

Illinois Railroad Museum

We visited early in the season and it proved to be a wet, cold and windy day. We were glad for the indoor displays.

There was a trolley running which we used to stay dry while getting around the grounds

You've got to love getting up on the platform of Private Varnish

Living Large in earlier times

Nicely restored hand brake mechanism

Dining Car

Restoration Shop

Quite the historical lineup

This is the Budd RDC car we went to see. It looks like paint stripping is underway.

I hope they get this operational and I get a chance to ride one day.