WARNING: Explosion of Imagination

 Have you ever gone to a museum to have fun? I mean REAL fun? I didn't think there were many more museums that allowed you to have fun inside them, but, hidden in the crannies of our neighborhood, we found it: The Durham Museum of Science!

You can't fully appreciate it from the pictures and my explanation probably won't be fully helpful either, but this museum was a way to make you feel like you were 10 again and the world was still more fun than you can imagine! Even my parents were amazed at some things while having just as much fun :)

 These globes had some sort of liquid in them that moved in beautiful patterns when you spun them fast. Apparently they were representing the way water moved on earth as it spins, and we ended up making lovely patterns by switching the directions fast, probably drowning more than one country in the process :)

 The Contraption Room, I wasn't going to take too seriously. Just a bunch of kids flinging ping pong balls around a room. But my sister was the first to try to make something, and from there we all joined in to make a machine where a ball rolled down a ramp onto another ramp into a bucket that fell down onto a see-saw which knocked over another ball that knocked down some dominoes! All the other parents were watching and clapped when we succeeded :) the room had everything you could possibly want to build something...except tape :)

 The Butterfly House is always my favorite part of anything, and this one was huge! At any one time there are about 600 different types of these beautiful creatures in the house! We all sat on a bench and watched them glide by silently in so many colors... we even got to hold some of the more adventurous ones!

 My brothers loved the playground which included a crows nest, castle, drum set, and a lot of other empty containers strung up especially for hitting :) There was also a water area where you could turn this and push that and water would spray, pour, and splash everywhere!

 This is inside a spaceship of sorts, complete with blast off button! For a while we all pretended we had landed on the moon :) I don't think the original spaceship had carpet and bar stools :)

What you are looking at my friends is a projection onto a wall of sand falling while a computer registers shadows on the wall and moves the sand accordingly! You could be a human tea cup  or stretch your arms REALLY far to try to stop the sand completely! We must have looked like real wack jobs from the outside, though :)

And, finally, THE SOUND ROOM. When you first walk in, it looks like tape on a floor create nine squares. There's cameras above and a couple screens also in the room. I was the first one inside. I stepped on a square and the room was filled with the sound of a wooden xylophone! I couldn't help myself! I bolted into the room, running from square to square as the sounds I couldn't quite identify filled my ears. My brothers and sister soon joined in and I must admit we made quite a racket, but I kept running until I collapsed on a bench and resorted to filming the monkeys run around. My cinematography doesn't do t justice, but I hope you can get the idea of the thrill I got.