Sunday, March 21, 2010

A Night In the Museum

When I woke up yesterday morning, there were two gigantic spheres looming over my head in the gloom. About an hour before I went to bed, those spheres had been issuing powerful sparks that lit up the room. We were sleeping in the shadow of the world's largest air-insulated Van de Graff generator.

It was part of an overnight trip to the Museum of Science in Boston, with the Cub Scouts. The generator is the centerpiece of the museum's demonstration on lightning, and was built about 80 years ago by Robert Van de Graff himself. That was only the most spectacular of many wonderful demonstrations and hands-on activities enjoyed by the Scouts between 7:00 Friday night and 11:00 Saturday morning.

We all started out with a show on forensic science, and scientific observation in general, and then we split into groups for hands-on workshops. Danny and I went to a demonstration of optical illusions, a favorite topic of mine. After that we were free to explore the museum for awhile, get a snack (Oreo Dippin' Dots), and choose other hands-on workshops. Danny wanted to do electric circuits, though he got sidetracked with so many of the displays that he didn't get to do much with electricity before it was time to go see the live animals, something he was even more interested in.


Danny met a white ferret, a frog, and a lizard before it was time to go off to see the Lighting show, and then go to bed.

Bedtime wasn't until midnight, and wake-up call was 6:45, so there wasn't a lot of sleeping involved. After we went to our cars to stow our gear, we had a light breakfast and then saw another fabulous show on how your senses can be fooled.

The last official event of the overnight was an Omnimax film about the coral reefs, and then we were free to explore on our own, until we ran out of steam. Amazingly, we made it for another four hours, visiting some of Mom and Dad's favorite exhibits. We drove back to Rochester to pick up my car, and then had dinner at Johnson's in New Durham (cook after all that? no way).

An exhausting, exhilarating, can't-wait-to-do-it-all-over-again experience.

But I think I need a nap.

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