An Interactive Pitstop at the Albuquerque Science Center

Although it was chilly, the sunshine felt great as we unloaded from the van, and the kids, running full speed to the building, wouldn't even pause for a photo.

Photo courtesy of Alburque Tourist Website

The Explora Science Center promised to have a lot to see and do for kids, with multiple hands-on and interactive exhibits, and with our local science center membership, we were able to check it out for free.

We are fans of anything engineering,  so it was definitely a fun place to take a break from the road.  The building was packed (and I do mean packed) full of things to touch, experiment with, move and explore.  Around every corner was tucked a new and different exhibit to touch and explore, it was almost overwhelming there was so much to do.

These ball and gears contraptions are so easy to take a few moments to watch.

The kids always enjoy this spinning disk exhibit.

Water and more water!  I was surprised at how many water exhibits they had.

The stop-motion movie maker was a big hit with the kids.

This light box was pretty cool too.

Laminar Fountain

A few of our favorite things were the main area fountain (Laminar Fountain), which had streams of dancing water that looked as though they were jumping from platform to platform, the stop-motion movie maker, and the interactive digital underwater world (Sketch Aquarium) where the kids could color their own sea creature and digitally bring it to life.

The negative was, everyone else thought it was a cool place to be also, so with the number of exhibits and the number of bodies all crammed into a not so enormous building, my irritability level started to go up and I was eager to move through and get away from the cluster.  Then, just when I thought my level of tolerance was being pushed to the max, the sweet poo smell I kept smelling off and on (which I thought to be a dirty diaper) was a larger issue than I expected, seeping out and soaking both me and Eli in a large poop blowout mess!  "Is that mustard on your shirt?"  Ha.  I could only wish it was mustard.

So, after an outfit change for Eli and a good scrub with a wet wipe to my now yellow stained shirt, we watched the kids made a stop motion movie before we headed upstairs in what could be one of the coolest elevators I've ever been in.  The elevator, which was a huge freight elevator, had couches, tables and even a piano for the kids to mess with as we traveled up.  Crazy fun.

Once at the top, we found our way to what was my favorite part, the interactive, digital underwater world called the Sketch Aquarium.  The underwater sounds were relaxing and because it was a smaller room, it wasn't packed to the gills like the other areas.  There, the kids could color a sea creature, scan it, which uploaded it to the program, creating a digital image that moved, darted and even interacted with stimuli.  We spent a large amount of time coloring sea creatures and watching them show up on the digital fish tank wall, then touching them and watching them swim, dart and move.  It was visually entertaining and definitely something I would love to see at our science center back home.

Overall, it was a fun stop, but we had close to 7 hours of driving ahead of us to get to Arizona, so we loaded the van and moved on.

Route 66 weaves in and out, along the I-40 W, in this area of New Mexico.

From the road, we could see the San Jose Mission (Laguna Church) that was constructed around 1699.
Pueblo of Laguna

Lots of railroads in this area.

We stopped in Gallup, NM to refuel and get some food.

Shortly before sunset, we crossed into Arizona!  Minion Tom celebrated with us. 

Science Centers make Road Trips more Fun

Last night (or actually early this morning) we stopped at the Hampton Inn in Clarksville, Indiana/Northern Louisville around 2 a.m. to grab a bit of sleep before checking out the science center and getting back on the road.

Honestly, we question why we even stop sometimes, especially at 2 a.m.  It never fails, we wake up in the morning feeling like we had ZERO sleep.  Driving all night was probably not going to happen because we were starting to get tired, plus, we wanted to check out the science center in Louisville, Kentucky along this trip, so we paid the money ($112 with tax, which is a bit much but some of the other hotels didn't have any rooms left with double beds) and got a room.  With complimentary breakfast for our family it saves us a bit of money, but normally we don't like to spend that much on a room... especially for a few hours of restless sleep.  The beds were pretty tight (I swear they are not queen beds), especially with Eli sleeping between us, so that could have been part of the issue as well.

At breakfast, we ate with a girls basketball team and one of them said they spotted a mouse near the microwave... so, it was an interesting start to our day to say the least.

Once breakfast was finished, a little before 10 a.m., we drove the short distance to the Kentucky Science Center in Louisville, Kentucky (right down the street from the Louisville Slugger baseball bat factory) and started the fun.

Right away the kids were impressed by the giant mirror mosaic outside the front doors, and giggled and laughed as they watched the images change as they ran back and forth while we waited for Derrick to park the van in the ramp.

Mr. Incredible!

Now... that's trouble!

Once inside, there was a lot of hands-on activities, a few we have never done before, and we worked our way through the exhibits.

Giant climbing wall for kids (and adults if they decide to give it a try)

Build Your Own Coaster was a favorite of ours.

This is one exhibit I would like to see our science center purchase.

Here the kids had to bounce to get a ball to the top.

This wall was a giant air flow wall that sucked in silk scarves and then popped them out at different locations.

 

The water area was a great place to splash and explore.

Elliot enjoyed it.

The kids used a variety of materials to build things to fly in the air tunnel.

They played a game where the floating cups would catch the other floating cups.

The PVC pipe from above almost hit me in the head... this exhibit needs some rubber elbows to keep them from slipping.

This is a large metal wall with magnetic pieces to line up for balls to roll over.

Before long it was past noon and we needed to get on the road.  When asked what they thought of this science center the kids agreed it wasn't the best they've ever been to (Oklahoma City Science Center still gets that award from us), but it was fun and they would come back if we were ever passing through again.

On our way back to the van we peeked in the windows of the Louisville Slugger factory and got a glimpse of the process of making a wooden bat.  Maybe we will stop again and take the tour when we have more time someday?

So now, it's on to Gatlinburg, Tennessee!

Road Trip Through Mississippi: Mississippi Museum of Natural Science

Today was a rainy day, and it was just going to get worse per the weather reports of rain and storms ahead, so it was a good day for driving.

We always tend to scout out all of the science centers and similar type of indoor facilities when traveling so we can break up our trip and let the kids explore a little along the way.  Plus, we have a membership family pass at our local science center, so a lot of the places are free for us, which makes for a bigger bonus!

I had written down and checked out the websites for all of the locations we would travel by on our way from Iowa to Mississippi, as we never really know how far we are going to travel or where we might stay overnight, so this morning I looked at the list seeing if there was a place we could stop to break up our trip.

In Mississippi, there was only one location that was listed for free:

Mississippi Museum of Natural Science
2148 Riverside Drive, Jackson 39202
(601) 576-6000
www.msnaturalscience.org

We marked it on the map and decided to take a look today as we traveled our 6 hour trip to the coast.

We started our travels after breakfast and when we arrived, everyone was ready to get out of the van.  The boys generally do a great job traveling, but today seemed to be a tough 3 hour drive as they were eager to get to the ocean and they didn't want to be in the van much longer.  Everyone was relieved to stop!

It was sprinkling when we arrived, so the outdoor events were going to be wet, but inside promised to offer a lot of animals and exhibits, so we were hoping it would be fun.

As we walked in we were greeted by an impressive, giant Tiger Swallowtail sculpture.

The special exhibit (Grossology, which we've seen before at a different museum) was in the process of being taken down, so there were boxes and such all over, but other than that, we had a fun time exploring, looking at the endangered species, seeing how large a sloth actually was (the kids love the movie Ice Age) and checking out all the live tanks of reptiles and fish the center had to offer.

Elliot was excited about the bones hanging overhead while Everett and Elliot learned about the giant sloth.

Elliot was impressed with the giant "fish in the sky" so he made me take his photo with it!

The Mississippi endangered species area was interesting too.

Who can resist sitting on a giant frog?

The large alligator (not real of course) was impressive to the boys.

Here they found a large Alligator Snapping Turtle to get their photo with.

We had a great time watching this turtle interact with the other turtles in the tank.  He kept waving his front hands in front of the other turtles as they would swim, and we still have no idea what this type of behavior means, although we saw some baby turtles doing it to their mother, so maybe it is part of their communication?

This interesting creature is a soft shell turtle.  I've never seen a live one but know that they can be found in Iowa too.

He was shy and tucked his head away.
(Everett, innocently, commented that this was his penis when he saw him.)

The baby turtles were fun to watch.

The baby alligators didn't do much, but they were fun to look at.

It was slippery, but we went outside anyway just to check it out.

Then we came back inside to check out more animals.  This two-headed snake really sparked our interest.  He was alive!

It says that both heads eat and drink, but the right side seems to be more in control of the body.  Crazy stuff!

This large, white catfish was a favorite for the boys.  He was HUGE!

You can see more of the fish in this YouTube video as well as the behavior of the turtles waving their hands in front of the others.  (The catfish is at the beginning and the turtles are the end of the video.)

After viewing the fish, the kids checked out the small play area for the little kids.  It had a slide and a play area under, so they spent a few minutes checking it out before we moved on to the live animal interaction hosted by a naturalists.

While waiting for the naturalists to bring out the live animal, Ethan found a friend.

They also had fun playing on the giant snake in the education waiting area.

The animal of the day was the Corn Snake and the kids enjoyed touching it.

Although I didn't know if Everett really liked it.

Elliot really didn't know what to think and stayed close to Ethan during the whole presentation.

 We hung out at the museum for a little over an hour and enjoyed the break from the road trip.

While we were there, and on our way out, I noticed the humidity having an effect on Elliot's hair.  It's been so long since I've seen these little curls!

 It was a fun and quick stop!