Discovery, DaVinci Style

We set out today for some fun without a particular goal in mind. Then I thought of the DaVinci Center. Kai and I had both been to the old Discovery Center in Bethlehem, but Nick and Scott hadn't. Plus, the new digs looked fabu from the outside, and we'd heard lots of new exhibits had been added. After a slight snafu in finding our way down the right one way street to get to the entrance, we arrived, only to realize we had only 3 hours before they closed to get the most out of our $30 (family total, not each!) admissions. We decided to go ahead and explore anyway. Turns out it was a GREAT choice.

The new building is beautiful, architechturally speaking. The huge glass walls let in lots of light, and the open floor plan had the kids continually hustling to see the next "cool" thing. The first exhibit let us examine various materials under magnification varying from a regular magnifying glass all the way up to an atomic microscope. Nicky especially loved the videoscope that projected the 100X magnified items on a television screen.

The next room housed all kinds of exhibits. Magnets were a popular plaything as we used magnetic fields to manipulate ferrous liquids. The iron filled liquid looked like pulsing, living creatures - not entirely unlike the sea urchins in the touch tank across the room. Dinosaurs and bones and tree rings in the nature area were examined and poked, and another videoscope, this one a "scope on a rope" gave us REALLY close up looks at our own eyes and faces. Another favorite was the light and dark area, where we crawled through a black hole tunnel (WOW was it dark in there!), left shadow imprints on a phosphorescent wall, became human batteries, and discovered that yes, Scott is right - those funny curly looking lightbulbs DO use less energy.

We also had fun in the weather center, changing the blue screen background while giving weather reports that changed rapidly from blizzards to hurricanes, with a random peaceful tropical beach just for fun. Seeing ourselves in the scene was very cool. Especially the hurricane, since we all love Anderson Cooper's hurricane coverage, but would just as soon never be in another tropical storm after Alberto in Disney World!

Then we went to the medical area, where we used stethoscopes to listen to each other's hearts, and tried to diagnose a patient from his x-rays, vital signs and symptoms. Obviously, Scott thought some brain surgery was needed....

We then headed upstairs, where we found a series of exhibits on machines and motion. The kids especially loved the fast sliding chairs demonstrating Newton's Third Law. Nicky lifted 120 lbs. with the help of a lever and Kairi generated enough power on a treadmill to turn on a video monitor. There was a HUGE kaliedescope and a sand art pendulum, and a wall for building chutes that a golf ball could travel down. We also tried our luck at arm wrestling a patron at another museum through the internet, pushing on a robotic arm on our end while they pushed on a robotic arm on their end. When the connection went through, though, we discovered ourselves wrestling against 12 kids or more in Queens, all pushing at once! We never had a chance. Also in this area, I particularly liked the giant tinkertoys that demonstrated center of gravity.

A snack break took us to a cafe where everything was automated, right down to vending machines that produced hot pizzas, macaroni and cheese, chicken strips, and fries! Kai and I enjoyed those ice cream dots you find at amusement parks, sucked out of the machine by vacuum power. Nick wanted a boring old cinnamon roll from the regular vending machine, but Scott was adventurous and sampled the vending fries. We all agreed they were pretty yummy, and they cooked in just 2 minutes!

It's nice to live in such a growing area where more fun family activities seem to pop up all the time. When we left, the kids were already talking about the next time we went back, and Nicky declared it cooler than Dorney Park, but not as cool as Disney World.

So, operation Twelve Days of Summer Vacation seems to be going GREAT! I can't wait to see what we come up with for tomorrow!