We used to live in Nashville, TN before moving to WV.  On a visit back to TN last year, we took a tour of the Adventure Science Center.  We decided to buy a family membership which is good at many museums and centers across the country…including the Clay Center in WV.  This weekend, we decided to head for the Clay Center to see what we could get into.  We arrived at 11:45 or so on Sunday morning and basically had the place to ourselves.  We took in a planetarium show which included the movie, “Space Oddities”  as well as the typical tour of the constellations (which was excellent). 

We exited out of the planetarium directly into the art gallery which had a special display of WV artists in addition to the gallery-owned pieces.  We each picked our favorite pieces.

In particular, Abigail liked a modern piece and wanted a picture.  Of course, we couldn’t take a picture so she is determined to write the artist a letter asking for a print of the piece.  I suspect she will succeed.  Anyhow, it was great to see them excited to pick their favorites (though they were ready to move on as soon as they had found their pieces).  We ventured into two displays they had including Milton Gardener’s Earth City and Health Royale.

Earth City was a cool model of an old-timey road-side attraction where the kids could play with water to discover how it flows as well as see all sorts of gizmos to move water and soak unsuspecting bystanders.  They had boots attached to a conveyor belt that the kids manually operated to fill a bin that occasionally dumped.  We watched as water trickled down through all sorts of things and saw how steam (fog) travels through a valley.

In Health Royale, there were a number of games, but in particular the kids enjoyed a Hollywood-squares-esque game where various body parts helped the kids answer questions about oral hygeine.  Isaac loved the talking brain especially.

Finally, we went to an exhibit called the Gizmo Factory that was all about fun with physics.  The kids got to reflect lasers through fog via mirrors, pull themselves up in a chair with pulleys, see how a computer translated their dance into sounds, play a laser harp, and watch water and a ball defy gravity.

All told, we spent 3 full hours exploring the fun at the museum.  The best part was that it was all free (aside from our membership which has already paid for itself).  

The kids had a blast and would have stayed longer if we would have let them.

We’ll definitely go back and soon.  Next week they decorate for Christmas which includes a display of model trains and trees decorated in various styles from around the world.  I can’t wait to go back!