We have a membership to The Great Lakes Science Center that expires in a few months. As a family of six, it’s normally cheaper, or just a few dollars more to buy a family membership to a museum instead of buying one-time tickets. That means that if we visit at least twice, we’ve gotten our money’s worth out of it.
Despite the pandemic, on occasion we do try to get out as a family and do something. I know we are risking a greater exposure going to a public place in a city much more crowded than where we live, but the museum does mandatory mask. We visited once last year when entry was limited due to capacity restrictions. We are a science loving family in general, and anything space or flight related ranks high on our list of things to see.
The museum has an exhibit that ends this weekend called Above and Beyond, which explores the future of aerospace and flight. Of course, this is a must-see thing for us before it disappears, so off we went yesterday to explore. The exhibit was very interactive. There were lots of videos explaining flight, a simulator to create your own plane and fly it, lots of examples of aerodynamics and building materials used for flight, and so much more.
We also spent some extra money this time and watched the Ancient Caves IMAX movie. It follows a paleoclimatologist exploring caves around the world and collecting water samples and stalactites and exploring how the weather changed during ice ages. It was amazingly done and packed full of science. Overall, a trip here will always count towards homeschooling hours.
We walked outside the museum to take a look at the Mather. It’s closed for tours during the Winter months, but it’s still amazing to stand beside it and see how big it is!
We also made a quick stop at Edgewater Park. It was a very foggy day, so you couldn’t see very far out at all over Lake Erie, but it was great to get out for about an hour walking along Edgewater Pier and watching the Seagulls.
Cleveland is a around an hour from our house, and traffic is always a nightmare, but I’m hoping that maybe at least every month or so we can take a trip that way to stop off at a park or museum and make a day out of it. There is so much to explore up there, and we’ve never taken the time besides visiting a museum or two. We want to focus more on experiences as a family, so Cleveland is a great opportunity to do some local adventures.