Some kids want to grow up. I never did. Cuz I was a Toys R Us k-- okay, no... it wasn't that. It's just that with each birthday I hit back then, something got added to the You are too old for this list. Coloring contests. Chuck E. Cheese’s ball pit. Kiddie games at the county fair. Age restrictions were everywhere. 5 and under. 10 and under. 12 and up. And the worst part of it was, I felt like the rules were always working against me. The second I got old enough to do something I'd been looking forward to, they'd raise the age minimum... or the thing I’d been waiting for would be erased from existence. Too old, too young, never just right... such was life. With one exception. The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. One of the most fun places in the state. Seriously. Okay, so I got a C in Physics, my math skills suck, and it’s a good thing I never took Chemistry because I would have probably blown up the science lab. In college, I managed to bypass the lab science requirements by using Astronomy credits I’d taken at another school. In other words, science? Not exactly my best friend. Kinda sorta boring. I’d rather be writing. The end. So why do I love OMSI? Maybe because it makes science fun. It’s not just beakers and chemicals and a bunch of microscopes... it’s a museum that’s, well, not really a museum so much as it is a giant playground that pays homage to everything that could possibly relate to science. There are computers, puzzles, games, reptiles, working models, and hundreds of kiosks that encourage mental stimulation and childlike curiosity. Maybe because it’s one of the few places you can visit at 25 and not get weird looks when you get all hyper excited about the same things that are currently amusing a flock of 6-year-olds. This is one museum I wouldn't mind getting lost in. Elementary school teachers used to take us to OMSI on field trips, because not only was it indoors and insanely educational (info. plaques as far as the eye can see), it was fun. Fun field trips meant less whining from the kids, and therefore less pill-popping by the teachers. A win-win. I went to many different museums as a kid, and the first thing I'd look for was the "fun stuff." Computers. Games. Anything that involved lights. OMSI has those. It has about a thousand of those. And so much more. Because of all the interactive stuff there, OMSI was the one field trip destination where we weren't forced to carry around pencils and booklets and answer questions while trying not to trip on sidewalk cracks. I hated those booklets. I want to go back in time and do something to those booklets. What? I haven't thought that through yet. OMSI is constantly changing; it's always adding new exhibits to keep visitors coming back. So the OMSI of now and the OMSI of twenty years ago are very different -- I can only imagine what it must have been like 50 or 60 years ago, when it first came into existence. (Anyone who wants to know the history of the place should check out this link. Take special note of the picture from 1973. The Gravitram inspired my brother and I to create many marble tracks and other inventions of mechanical awesomeness during the 80's. Holy crap, I could stare at that machine for hours.) My first trip was in 1988. They were big on dinosaurs that year. In the 90's, they had a Star Trek theme going on for a while. A year or two ago, there was a Richard Scarry theme. Now...? Well, why don't I show you? Behold. I love watching cartoons. I love to draw. I love movies and TV shows. I love comic strips. Hell, apparently I love everything, but the word "animation" pretty much makes my brain do a happy dance. Two weeks ago, Will Vinton (creator of Claymation) and some other big-name Oregon animators showed some of their work at a film festival at OMSI. They also put up a display of animation artifacts. The artifacts would only be there a couple of weeks, so naturally I had to rush right over. But mostly because of these... The Adventures of Mark Twain is one of those movies I loved as a kid but that I didn't get to watch all that often because my parents thought it was sacrilegious or something, so they taped over it with a penguin documentary. At least they left the Claymation Christmas special intact. Luckily, there was ebay and now I’ve watched Mark Twain several times. It’s a very strange film. But I like it. Anyway, OMSI currently has this big room devoted to animation. It features everything you could possibly want to know about how it’s created. In one booth, you can go inside, jump around or dance or wave around like an idiot, and a camera will take several shots of you. Then you get to watch yourself on a TV screen, where it looks like you’re doing a spastic jig. Another booth lets you put together an array of sound effects to complement a cartoon. Other kiosks provide more simple entertainment -- one allows you to storyboard a short animated sequence. Another lets you create a segment of stop-motion animation using colored blocks. The room is filled with color and images of Cartoon Network characters, with a few other surprises strewn throughout. It’s a wonderful tribute to animation, and I think it was a brilliant choice for a special attraction. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. Down the hall and around the corner from the world of animation stands the turbine room. It’s this big, uncarpeted exhibit hall that features everything from waterways for toy boats to a ball room where foam balls launch in all different directions to an actual working train engine to marvel at. Attached to this hall are several smaller rooms. One is a kind of lab with different exhibits on physics, static electricity, telegraph machines, musical instruments, weights and pulleys, and electrical wiring. You can rewire a series of lights and switches, experiment with light waves, or make your hair stand on end. The turbine hall is currently home to the Earthquake House. This house has been around for ages (though it's gone through a few cosmetic changes over the years) and is one of the few features at OMSI that can be considered a "ride". Basically it's a little structure that you go inside so you can learn about earthquakes. Push a button, and the whole thing shakes. It's pretty low-key, but I've always been a fan of it, and it’s been there since I was seven -- but probably longer. Directly above the animation center is another level of OMSI goodness. As OMSI changes its exhibits every so often, you never know what you’ll find up there. This time, we were surprised to discover that part of it has been turned into a toddler’s paradise. Kids under four (note: I did not see actual signs posted about age limits, but the kids I saw playing here were all pretty young) can manipulate a watermobileydeal machine, play “store” with plastic food in a pretend shopping environment, play with toy camels and cars in a sandbox, and climb to their heart’s content. Next door to the kiddie land is another exhibit hall. There’s no real rhyme or reason to this section, but you’ll find old, familiar OMSI favorites nestled within. We happen to love the puppet stage. Apparently you’re supposed to listen to the story and watch your puppets via a mirror, but we just like playing with them. Puppets rock. Like the turbine hall, this exhibit hall has little rooms off to the side. One of them houses live animals, including fish and a humongous snake that I would not want to anger. Sometimes I get a bit overwhelmed at OMSI. There is so much to see and to learn, there’s no way my brain can absorb it all in one trip. So I just take it a little at a time -- each visit, trying new things and learning a thing or two. In addition to the museum, OMSI also boasts a working submarine, an IMAX theater, and a planetarium -- each costing money beyond the regular museum admission. Still, you could spend all day here, there is so much to do. I hear it’s one of Oregon’s big tourist attractions, now. Seeing as how OMSI has not one, but two smushed penny machines, I believe it! 29 January 2006 Leave a message in the guestbook or the the blog to comment on this article. :) Special thanks to Gretchen & Stephen N. for being my OMSI buddies. Back to Life Back to Main (c)2006 AlligatorJuice.com