Spring Break- Monday the 6th part one

After breakfasting with DH and seeing him off to work, we hung around the hotel room for a bit until the Visitors Center opened. All the stuff we planned to do was walking distance, so we left the car in the garage.

At the Visitors Center we picked up a map for a walking tour of downtown, browsed around, and then headed for Discovery Place, the local kids' museum. DS was concerned that it wouldn't be of interest to him, but he needn't have worried. I think this was both kids favorite place in Charlotte.



They had a circus exhibit going on. Very cool, costumes to try on, juggling items to try, pretend strong man weights to lift. They also had a person demonstrating juggling, but we never really managed to catch him. AND, they had a high wire and an acrobatic bungee thing to try! DD was too small to do either, although she was old enough, and DS was too chicken. I was scared, but I wanted to do the high wire. I assigned DS to take pictures so I could prove to DH that I'd done it. I was strapped in a safety harness, of course, and the guy sending people out at the top told me I could do stuff like bounce, walk backward, turn in circles, etc. I wasn't brave enough for any of that, I just crossed over and then came back. But it was fun, and I'm glad I did it!



This machine was their favorite thing at Discovery Place. It's called the Gizmotron, and it moves little plastic pellets around. DS told me it's meant to represent a mining operation, or something to that effect, but I'm not sure. They had to be pried away to go see other things.



DS also liked this a lot. You pump up the air pressure and try to shoot the balls into the nets. It was part of the circus exhibit, using the same principles as the human cannonball.



While DS was shooting balls, DD rode in the Air Chair, which used air pressure to raise the chair up a couple of yards or so. When the pressure was released, the chair gently returned to the ground. We also did tin foil sculptures, virtual sports in front of a blue screen, and made colorful shadows.



The dinosaur exhibit was fun to look at. There were about five or six models, plus a steamy pond thing.



We walked through the mini rainforest, and then headed downstairs.



Downstairs was a small aquarium. In this area we also found information on some historic ships, such as the Monitor and the Hunley. There was a weather area with a tornado thingy you could climb in, and a setup to put you on tv in a weather report.



Electromagnets and some fun exercise type machines that used air pressure to move balls and such finished off the museum. There was also a play area for preschool kids, and an Imax theater, but we didn't see a movie.



We did see a not very good educational puppet show back over in the aquarium area. Of course, I am used to the high quality productions of our Center for Puppetry Arts, so that probably colored my opinion of it.

It was lunchtime by now, so back to the hotel. We got a lift part of the way from the free trolley.