I mentioned earlier this month that we went to the children’s museum when we visited my parents. I took so many pictures that week with the car cakes and the 4th, that these museum pictures have been hanging out at the top of my screen with the bubble pictures waiting to be posted. The name of this museum certainly suits it. Amazement Square. And let me tell you, there is no shortage of amazement here. No opportunity for amazement left unturned. It was simply…well…amazing. Even from the outside, there are gigantic bug sculptures perched the side of the building and out in front of it. There is a stationary bus beside the building. When my mom inquired about it, the girl said, oh well it just hides all the air conditioning equipment. A clever solution to hide anything that may not function as an exhibit.

Ah crap Yay, a Thomas table (is it required that all children’s establishments have one of these? I think it is for parental torture. Good luck figuring out how to drag your child away from this one without a tantrum! Luckily, in a museum, this overseen novelty isn’t a main attraction)

This thing was so cool. Stay with me here. There is a ‘steering’ wheel right in front of him, that isn’t pictured, because I wasn’t on my photography game this day. Anyway, look at the circle closely, and you can kind of see that the barn/mountains/trees/etc. are on a different layer than the sky. As you turn the wheel, the sky section rotates, so the sun moves across the sky, and the moon rises on the horizon. Well as you turn the wheel, the lighting and sounds for this room are tied in. So during the ‘day’ the lights gradually become brighter and more intense, starting with the rooster crowing in the morning. There is a skylight in the barn roof (where this exhibit is) where you can see the sky changing also. A rooster pops up into sight and crows at the crack of dawn (pictured below). Then as the moon comes into view, you begin hearing night noises, crickets, frogs and such, and the lights get dim, you can see stars, the moon and bats through the skylight.

The skylight in the barn roof with the rooster.

The barn I’m talking about, complete with a cow that can be milked! Well, she’s a water producing heifer. That’s my mom cheesing.

Even the steps were amazing! If you look really closely, you can see little black dots along the wire screen there on the sides of the stairs (look about an inch below his hand). These are actually motion sensors. These steps look completely ordinary when you approach them, but as you step on, and motion is detected, they light up about 4 or 5 at a time. Within a few seconds of triggering the next motion detector, the first set up steps goes dark again (assuming there in no one else there). The museum is several stories, and each level has these steps. But that isn’t the only way to navigate between levels. Oh no.

In addition to an elevator shaft with clear sides so that you can see the elevator going up and down, there’s also this. A multi-level jungle gym if you will (this model might help you picture this). You can see a zip-line in this picture. The handlebars to hang from even return on their own to the top of the cargo net you see here. It is on a controlled speed so that you don’t go too fast, and you go through that hole in the wall and drop off into that blue padded area. I don’t know this kid, but Caleb wasn’t quite big enough to really enjoy the jungle gym too much. He was mostly just intimidated by the big kids in there, but it was really meant for kids a little older.

This drum would sound out your heartbeat pretty loudly after a few seconds

Caleb and Grandma GoGo are over there strolling through the heart. Not pictured: a clogged artery that kids can crawl through. The saloon doors are the heart valves.

Caleb and Papa right before he arrived at his favorite exhibit.

And here we have it, the area that we could not tear this kid away from. He drenched his shirt multiple times, in the over two hours we spent here. Little does he know, his next potty training reward will relate to this exhibit.

There were tones of different shaped little boats and canoes that you could send down this river. There are several different ways to control the water with locks and watermills. What makes this even neater, the exhibit is modeled after the city of Lynchburg (where the museum is located). The model city behind Caleb in the picture is downtown Lynchburg, and the museum is right on the banks. You can sort of see that there is plexiglas around the city. This is because there are three buttons that you can hold down for a few minutes, which fills up a tank of water overhead. As the tank becomes more and more full, the screen overhead changes from blue skies to increasingly dark and cloudy. You hear thunder rumbling that becomes increasingly louder and common. Then the sprinklers open and rain on the city. And it really does look like rain! Amazing!

You can see the clouds suspended above the exhibit and this gives you a better idea of the size, probably around 30 feet long! The clouds are suspended with fishing line so they sway and move around in the breeze from the vents and people moving around. As you can see, there was a lull where everyone else moved along. Except Caleb.

Oh, I almost forgot, something I didn’t get any pictures of, as I relinquished my heavy camera bag when my parents went to go take care of my mom’s dogsitting duties and Caleb and I stayed at the museum.  They had a building area with several different types of blocks and building exhibits.  One was a crane outstretched over a construction site.  The site was blocked off, as any construction site would be.  There were large building pieces in there painted to look like buildings.  They had loops made from heavy duty rope on top of each piece.  The crane had three wheels for the kids to turn.  One controlled the position of the crane arm left to right.  One controlled the distance of the crane rope hanging down (closer or further away from you) and the other controlled the movement up and down of the crane hook.  Caleb and I worked with two other kids to position the crane arm and drop it down, then pick up one of the pieces and move it on top of another.  It was a lot harder than one might think, but it was neat how all of us worked together, three kids who didn’t know each other.

Needless to say, I doubt I will be allowed to visit my parents without planning to spend at least one day here. Just a few days ago, Caleb said “Can we go back to da place with de green roof and the bugs on it dat has da boat fwoat?!”

Comments

3 Responses to “spectacular”

    Amber
    July 21st, 2008 4:06 pm

    love the toes with the potty chart. Also hilarious – saying that your mom was cheesing in the picture.

    Val
    July 23rd, 2008 9:44 am

    Wow! That place is amazing! We haven’t taken the kids to our Children’s Museum yet…..but I am doubting it is quite like this.
    How cool!

    Julie
    July 24th, 2008 8:28 pm

    Wow! I want to go there! haha! Glad you all had such a nice time! Thanks for describing it for us! :)

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