Did you enjoy school? I did, except for one subject. Science. Ugh! I hated those classes, occasionally I got a teacher that made the subject interesting (nothing could have made chemistry cool…nothing) but for the most part I was left to flounder in the dark struggling my way through the dreaded subject.

However, as an adult I’ve tried to find educational ways to entertain myself so Alex and I have been going  to a LOT of museums lately. (We feel so mature when we do this…till we play with all the kid activities!) Sunday we decided it was too dang hot out to spend the day in the sun so we headed to Tellus, North Georgia’s Science Museum.

Y’all….they make science COOL!

It happened to be me the Rock Festival this weekend so that had vendors inside and out sharing all sorts of information about geodes, rocks, crystals, and they were selling a lot of the items as well. Alex was particularly caught by the guy who hand – cuts and polishes stone guitar picks. He then sells then at booths and online. (Y’all evidently one of these bad boys can last multiple YEARS! How cool is that?!)

After awhile we stepped away from the rocks and wandered our way through various parts of the permanent museum displays. We stopped by the aviation displays where we were captivated by this progressional AND to scale (1:48 to be exact) set of models showing the rockets history.

Check out the size of the average man versus the largest rocket ever created. (The rocket is NASA’s Saturn 5) Now imagine being told, “John we need you go work on rocket blaster 1 over there, don’t get lost climbing inside.” Teheheh.

We also were able to look at a mock-up of the Appollo 1 capsule. They also had a life-size space suit beside it to give you an idea of what the typical outfit looks like in relation to your body.

Wait? How did he get in there?! (Confession: He made me take photos with me in the suit too, however since I edit the photos that one shall never make its way onto this blog. Perhaps onto Facebook or Photobucket, but not here. Ever.)

From there we moved on to technology in terms of motors. I told Alex I found his next car.

He can tool me around on dates in it.

From here we wandered over to the pre-historic animals (read that as Dinosaurs!). I chatted it up with Stan the T-Rex.

We compared nails and I determined that he would have had a HUGE pedicure bill with these babies.

Alex, who can’t seem to help but touch every thing that says “PLEASE TOUCH” explored this odd blob before reading the sign. You know what this is?

Dino Poop. Yup Alex went around touching Dino Poop that had fossilized.

He also did a little turtle talking and decided that he could have moved on to this guy’s shell.

We both were amazed to see Nessie here! (SCIENCE FACT: For a long time believers really felt that Nessie, the Loch Ness monster, was one of these dinosaurs that somehow managed to survive extinction. This belief was later disproved.)

As we were getting to leave this area Alex came across THE BIG ONE THAT GOT AWAY.

"I swear Stephanie, It was THIS big!"

Kinda puts the whole “Scary Great White” into perspective doesn’t it?

Next we took a short break by riding 3-D roller coasters in space via the planetarium. I never knew I could get motion sick on a fake ride, but the stars spinning, the horizon swirling, and the lights off led to me clutching Alex’s hand for dear life while mumbling “Why did I pick this show? Why did I pick this show?” to myself.

The last thing we did was wandered through the ROCK section of the museum. Here we explored meteors and the periodic table.

SCIENCE FACT: Did you know Francium was named for France? Yup! And per the super helpful display we also learned one other thing.

It has no known uses. I wonder what they were trying to say when they named it after France. (And it’s not the only one like this. Check out the photos on the Facebook page for more!)

Finally we were ending the tour when I was distracted by Georgia’s very own state gemstone. Can you identify what it is? (hint: Purple is not the only color it comes in…this is just my college alum color)

I tried to show Alex that it was just the right size for me to carry around, but he wasn’t budging on this whole “leave it at the museum” silliness.

I didn’t want to over-load y’alls computers so the rest of the hundred+ photos Alex and I managed to take on Sunday, as well as a bunch from Saturday and the visit to the Winery are posted up on my Photobucket page. (later this week at least) I’ll also be pulling from these for some Wordless Wednesday posts so be sure to watch the Photography page for photos.

So question, If we were to visit you in your city, what nearby museum would you recommend and why?