OMSI Party

Saturday after Dan and I braved a 7 mile "shakeout run" (oops) we had a date with Brooke and Brad at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). They had purchased a LivingSocial deal and invited us along for the ride!

I hadn't been to OMSI since probably middle school and remember having a family membership when my brother and I were much younger and never getting tired of all there was to do and learn about at the museum.

Our exploration started in the exhibit Race: Are We So Different and moved along with other visitors to learn about the global climate, sustainability and environmental hazards in the Earth Hall. Dan and I both tested our blood pressure, contributed photos of our skin on the race chart, gawked at geodes and fossils and solved the satellite photo challenge on the maps.

After a solid 90 minutes of serious topics we headed downstairs where the main fun was in the exhibit Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body. We learned some things about ourselves - like that sleeping on your right side helps gas escape more easily from your body or that when you 'toot' the slower you let the air escape, the less noise it will make.... but still you should never trust a fart. Us girls had a great time at the toot machine and everyone had some giggles at the verbiage used for producing #2's.

After having a great laugh with each other's immature antics, we saw Tornado Alley in the IMAX theater and saw how destructive and devastating these storms can be to those who live in America's "tornado alley". Dan and I also scoped out where the best seats would be in the theater in preparation for this week's date to see The Dark Knight Rises for my 4th time in IMAX.

The most interactive part of the day was our time spent in the Turbine Hall with robots, sail boats, earthquake simulators and paper airplanes. We had fun building, manipulating, competing and observing before our final film in the Planetarium about Mayan Prophecies and how they predicted storms through what they saw in the stars.

If you've never been to OMSI, go check it out and remember that interactive science isn't just for kids!

<3 JE