Hi, everyone! This weekend’s adventure with Nick and Sally was to the Great Lakes Science Center, where they took me (their dad) to see all the neat stuff.
I was excited to go. Though I have been to GLSC for various events, I have never really been in the galleries to see the permanent exhibits. Even better, part of the museum has been redone as the NASA Glenn Research Center’s visitor’s center, after budget cuts forced the closure of the original visitor’s center. I have fond memories of numerous school trips to NASA and was looking forward to seeing it again after a few decades away.
Imagine my excitement when, as soon as we walked in the door, I saw a real Apollo capsule on display. This one carried a crew to Skylab, the US’s first space station. Nick has been very much into rockets and space ships lately. I wasn’t sure he understood at first, but he got excited once he had a look inside and saw the seats and controls. Later, he told Lyn, “I saw a real space ship!”
Nick and Sally tolerated a trip into the biomedical engineering section, to humor their Daddy who has worked in that field for some years. They enjoyed it more than they expected. Nick liked working controls to move a dummy’s arm (the exhibit was about using electronics to move paralyzed limbs), and Sally liked playing with a giant DNA model.
Next, we visited the play area on the third floor. Nick enjoyed fixing a play car they had. Sally preferred to drive it.
Uh oh, it looks like Sally needs to make some repairs, too…
On the way out, we passed through the electricity exhibit. Nick asked recently how traffic lights work, so he took a few minutes to investigate.
After too many detours to count, we finally made it out of the exhibit hall and into the main entryway. I breathed a sigh of relief — at this age, lunch and naps are very important things. Suddenly Nick exclaimed, “Daddy, I can see the stairs!” I looked around, seeing an escalator, but no stairs. Eventually I saw what both children had already seen. This escalator had a glass side to show the steps circulating back down to the bottom. The escalator held their attention for longer than many of the exhibits.
Finally, we made it back to our car. The outing was deemed a success by all. We will be returning. We have plenty of museum left to explore.