I took Joe and Jack on a mini-vacation to Winston-Salem, North Carolina this past weekend. In good traffic it’s about a 4 hour drive. With 2 little boys, it takes a bit longer :-/
On the drive down, I ended up having to stop 3 times – 3 times for a 4 hour drive! I was ready to pull my hair out but between Joe needing to use the bathroom (1 stop) and Jack having a meltdown (2 stops) there wasn’t much else that I could do. Jack had another meltdown about 10 miles from our destination and I ended up “throwing” whatever I had at him – toys, snack cups with Cheerios (what a mess that turned into), my cell phone… anything to keep him happy.
We were in W-S to see my brother-in-law and sister-in-law as they did some house-hunting. They’re both starting their residencies (internal medicine and pediatrics) later this year and will be at Wake Forest. Along for the fun was my little nephew, J, and my mother-in-law and father-in-law. I knew that it would be a short trip (Friday morning – Saturday evening) but I’ve never been to W-S, Chris had a lot of work that he needed to catch up on, so I figured, “Why not?” and headed out.
The weather there was gray and rainy. Definitely a bit depressing. I still went out as much as I could in such a short time and got to see some of the downtown arts district. We also visited the SciWorks Museum. Joe had a blast there. It’s a very hands-on place and perfect for busy toddlers (not so great for babies, but it’s hard to find something to please everyone). Here’s a picture of Joe riding the vacuum-powered jet-pack chair…
These photos don’t do the chair justice. It had a vacuum (pictured on the left-side of the photo) that was activated by pushing 2 buttons on either side of the chair (you can see them in the picture – they’re yellow). Joe, who loves to push buttons, was in 7th heaven. It went up really high, too – at full height, I’d say that the seat’s bottom was about the level of my head, and I’m 5’8″. It was hard to get a decent photo because Joe kept pushing the buttons! He ended up riding it on 3 separate occasions and loved it.
The above photo was Joe running around the spiral ramp encircling Foucault’s Pendulum. It’s so hard to get a photo of this active little guy anymore!
Humoring me by standing still and letting me take a photo – clearly not happy at being stopped!
The museum was full of different exhibits ranging from engineering to nature to food to biology. Here’s Joe climbing the tree slide and coming out at the bottom.
Doing a wee bit of fishing with Gramma’s help…
Running along the floor piano…
Riding “The Magic School Bus”…
As you can probably surmise by Joe’s facial expression in the above photo, he was going a bit crazy with all of the things to see and do at the museum. This was the last photo of our trip there because, shortly after I took it, he had a meltdown. Too many fun things to see and do all at once!
One feature that I particularly appreciated about the museum was the “FoodWorks” area. Essentially, this was a big cafeteria-style space with chairs and tables, a microwave, and vending machines. You can bring in your own lunch rather than having to stop to go elsewhere or feel like your only option is whatever the museum might be selling. We brought some peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and other snacks and had a low-key meal before enjoying the exhibits.
Another nice perk is that the SciWorks Museum is a member of the Association of Science – Technology Centers (ASTC), as is the Virginia Living Museum. This meant that our VLM family + guests membership got us into the SciWorks Museum for no charge (along with everyone else in our party since we have a membership that allows for 3 guests). We are heading to Florida this summer for another family get together, and I’ve already scoped out the ASTC facilities there that niwe can visit at no charge. I’ve also found that there are 2 participating institutions in my parents’ hometown, so we can easily visit those whenever we visit them.
We’re really glad that Chris’ brother, wife, and son will be moving a bit closer to us and I enjoyed our time in Winston-Salem. I have no doubt that we’ll be back for a repeat visit before 2014 is up 🙂
What a cool museum – I can see why Joe had so much fun!
We loved living in W-S, so much to do for families! Sci-works has a cute little farm area too if it is nice out, and the Children’s Museum downtown is wonderful. Hope your brother in law & sister in law enjoy residency at Wake, my husband went to med schol there.