St. Paul Again for Some Science

We received a gift membership to the Science Museum for Christmas this year, so we decided it would be a nice end of vacation family outing to go there and see the Titanic exhibit and play for a bit in the other exhibits.

Just outside the Titanic line, they've redone the exhibits on the floor, replacing an infectious disease exhibit with some more hands on tools. Opti thought this bike generator was awesome, especially when he realized he could light up a whole string of CFLs instead of just barely lighting one incandecent bulb.

This table lets you build models of various molicules. This is ethanol. A MN favorite.


On the lowest level of exhibits, Opti helped assemble to skeleton of a dinosaur. He was rather pleased with his paleontology skills.


The native plant maze looks awesome in winter. . .so peaceful.

Getting some Culture in to make up for the lack of Classroom Time

I know, I know, winter break is supposed to be a "break" for kids, but the little guy just loves to learn stuff(ok and I do too)!

My sister was visiting from Tampa so I took a few days off from work to hang out with her, Matt and the boy. Matt went snowboarding Monday, so we figured it might be a good day to check out the Minnesota History Center, since Christi had never been there and Optimus was curious to see an exhibit about Ben Franklin. I could tell Christi was a little skeptical that the History Center would be "fun," but she was willing to humor the little guy.



Little did she know, but she would actually enjoy it! The Greatest Generation exhibit my aunt recommended we not miss was neat, the Ben Franklin exhibit was awesome--especially the interactive travel piece that let us try and travel the route Ben did to Philly. The first time, no sweat, the next eight. . . not so good.

Optimus even got to serve as the esteemed Mr. Franklin's assistant during one of his thunder house explanations, which was rather awesome, even now, so I can imagine how mind blowing it must have been in his time. I've included a video of the explanation of a thunder house, as I was unable to find on on the internets anywhere else.



Charging up a liden jar

Checking out the Thunder House Replica

Making Munitions in the Greatest Generation exhibit

The ever entertaining GRAINLAND! Where you get to pretend to be one of the grains grown in Minnesota and follow the path though the elevator to your mode of transport. Think McDonalds Playplace filled with children of people looking for educational fun.



In addition to visiting the MN History Center we also checked out a few St. Paul landmarks that she'd never been to, and that I haven't visited in so long I don't really remember being there, the State Capitol and the Cathedral of St. Paul. I couldn't have ever visited the cathedral before, because it is so beautiful inside that I'm sure I would have remembered it. . .as beautiful as any church I've visited in Europe. I can't quite figure out what took me so long to pay it a visit.

Perhaps it was the ice rink they had for stairs?


I've got a thing for the interiors of domes, and the cathedral has one that is just gorgeous.


Optimus lit a votive, while thinking happy thoughts for the world


The Capitol


Interior of Capitol Dome


In Session Home of our State Reps




The reason we went to the capitol in the first place. . .LEGOs