"Tour 2 of House on the Rock....."

Our 3 section tickets had to be punched at the beginning of each of the tours.  Right outside the door of the "punching area", and at the beginning of Tour 2, was this waterwheel.  It is located in a small, serene, enclosed courtyard.....

Walking through the exhibit called the "Streets of Yesterday", we came to this steam engine......

Next to that was a large wagon........I'm not sure if they were part of the same exhibit but they could have been..... that had a "band" which played when coins were inserted into a box (we'd been given several coins for this purpose).  The tunes were pretty spectacular!  And yes, the little guys did move and/or play, too, depending on the tune.

After leaving the "Streets of Yesterday", we began our tour through the "Heritage of the Sea", where this "little guy" was the center attraction.   ;)  We took this photo with Don next to the whale so you could get an idea as to its true size.

Don took this photo from the next level of the exhibit.

Kind of eerie isn't it?  The whale's eye seemed to follow you as you walked by.......

Surrounding the whale and lining the walls on an ever rising ramp, were glass cases filled with marine history and models of boats and ships.  The models went from 1' in length/height to 10' or more!  It is an amazing collection!  What would an exhibit be without the Titanic, too?  I wouldn't know as this one had a model of it that was easily 10' long as it "met" the iceberg, plus original newspapers with their headlines of the tragedy, and other pertinent items.

After leaving the "Heritage of the Sea" exhibit we walked into an area that a multitude of musical instruments that would play using one of our coins.  I know there is a specific name for these machines/contraptions, but I do not know it.  As beautiful as this one was, it needed some maintenance as the violins were VERY MUCH out of tune!  It was painful to listen to it so we moved on rather quickly.   ;)

Another piece of the exhibit that I have not a clue about other than it was "over the top".   ;)

The photo below was our introduction to a HUGE room filled with a variety of carriages,  both steam and horse drawn, a few automobiles, and assorted "other things on exhibit".  The room also held a restaurant and ice cream parlor, so people could stop, rest, and fuel their bodies for the rest of the tour.   ;)

We took a few photos in here, which will be in tomorrows post as this one is long enough already.   ;)