The Franklin Institute

Continuing on our tour of Southeastern PA museums, we went to the Franklin Institute on Wednesday. Because the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh is part of the Association of Science-Technology Centers, our membership there gets us admission to both the Franklin Institute and the Academy of Natural Sciences (though we did not go there this time) in Philadelphia, as well as a few other locations in Allentown, Reading and Lancaster - all coming later this year or early in 2012!

Goofy faces in the lobby

Typical admission to the Franklin Institute is $15.50 per adult and $12.00 per child.  Today we brought my sister-in-law, Stella, nephew, Danny and niece, Lucy with us.  Two adults, four kids... total cost? $15.00 for parking.  I am loving this museum membership thing... I think it will turn out to be one of my best ideas of the summer!

I remember going to the Franklin Institute on school trips back in my catholic school days, learning about stars and constellations in the planetarium, riding the locomotive on the ground floor and walking through the heart, over and over.  I always loved those trips... even loved going as an adult.  So I was pretty excited to be taking the kids.

Just like with the Please Touch Museum the day before, the Franklin Institute was swarming with school groups... remembering how most amusement parks fill from the front to back, I hoped if we started on the top floor we might avoid some of the early crowds but had no such luck.  We began with a photo exhibit of Walden Woods in different seasons - each piece more breathtaking than the last. Eventually, we wanders into the Sports Challenge exhibit, which, after going to the Carnegie Science Center and Highmark SportsWorks in Pittsburgh was a little disappointing... even so, the kids had a chance to score soccer goals, pitch baseballs, climb a rock wall, and test their reaction times in a race car.

We spent lots of time with the Giant Heart exhibit... which was just as I remembered. The kids, minus my nephew, loved running through the heart.  Cathy even managed to sneak away when I wasn't looking for an extra trip through.  It was here  learned that Cathy and I together, plus my very heavy purse of kid crap, have about 22 cups of blood in our bodies.  Who knows when that sort of information can come in handy???

My baby, sitting on a clogged artery!

By early afternoon, Stella and the kids left for nap time and we were joined by both the Schaffer family (yes, they really came out with us four days in a row) and the Tantum family. 

It was great to have Maddie, Emma and Will join in on the fun and the seven kids had a great time running through the heart, playing electricity games, learning about space, and riding the giant locomotive. 

All the kids (minus Cathy) watching the pendulum swing!

There's a pretty cool exhibit for kids ages 5-8 on the ground floor: Kid Science.  Since our entire group fell into this age range, it was a perfect place to spend time.  The exhibit has a two-story lighthouse, a sailboat (where kids could experiment with air), a walk- through cave, lasers, and lots of water, all of which are designed to illustrate sound, movement, geology, and reflection.  The kids had a blast here.

This is another success in what is turning out to be a pretty busy, adventurous summer.  We had barely made it out to the parking lot before Matt asked if we could go back again... I'm all for it; there are exhibits that we did not have a chance to see even though we spent over six hours there. 

I am currently sitting next to Matt to write this entry while he watches Star Wars (one of my all-time favorites) for the first time and asked him what his favorite thing at the Franklin Institute was... without hestitation, he told me it was the train ride.  I guess that is typical for a boy to say.

It makes me hope that the Horseshoe Curve and Railroaders Museum come out of the Jar of Fun soon!  I think both kids will enjoy that (and it's only 40 miles down the road)!