da Vinci experience

Steven and Lisa came to town this weekend so our Random Event Generator (Carolyn) arranged for our Sacramento family to join them in a visit to the da Vinci Experience currently being presented by Sacramento's very own Aerospace Museum of California.

Although it was a bit pricey, it was a really good exhibit for kids as it allowed "hands on" for about half the exhibits. The inventions of da Vinci mean more when you can actually see them in action. Unfortunately, it wasn't made clear which ones were simply demonstrations of machines common in da Vinci's time and which ones he made significant improvements to. Here the kids are examining a jack which made use of levers and gears.


Entrance to the da Vinci Experience also included entrance to the Aerospace Museum. It was way too hot to climb around and into the airplanes that are on display outside the museum building but there were some interesting exhibits inside. There was also a "simulator" one could ride for an extra $5. Rather than a real flight simulator, it was a 6 person theater where they showed video clips taken out the front of various aircraft while altering the pitch and yaw of the seating cluster. That gave some feeling of actually flying while not being so extreme as to cause sickness. I didn't take the chance but most of our group did. Here they're anxiously awaiting their turn.