TASM – Out of This World!
When writing my post about cool places and events on my radar, I confessed that until recently, I had no idea Tulsa HAD an air and space museum. Last weekend, my husband and I took our older two kids to check it out!
It was a gorgeous day and Corrinne was doing cartwheels in the parking lot before we even went in!
The Tulsa Air and Space Museum is a beautiful facility. It’s filled with replicas of airplanes, space crafts and tons of historical information.
They have a supercool NASA space craft simulation machine. I forget what the name of the machine was, but it simulates what astronauts use to navigate outside the space craft (I keep wanting to say rocket ship…but I feel like that’s not a technical term…) to make repairs on the space station or to the ship itself. Little Miss was too short to get on it alone and was really bummed after watching her brother take a turn. Then the volunteer said she could get on with me! We completed the task in no time and she was thrilled!
Then we met Mr. Gentis, who is a volunteer and shares about his experiences in WWII. He was a bombardier in the 8th Infantry of the Air Force, and shares his own personal photo album as well as other historical documents. His stories are incredible. I was so honored to meet him and to have the kids hear his stories!
Marc and I became astronauts for a brief moment in time…
and Corrinne got to make a rocket blast off!
One of the benefits of having a big family is that when you consider how much you pay for one visit, it makes even more sense to purchase memberships to museums like TASM! I started thinking about Summer and how many days will need to be filled with activities now that I’m at home with my kids, and looked at all the activities and camps they have available and told them to sign me up. With our membership, we have free admission to all the movies shown at the Planetarium, so we headed over for the 3pm show which we were just in time for!
Before the showing of a film about the invention of the telescope, we had a tour through the universe. It was so cool, and I learned something Ididn’t know! I’m not sure how smart I’ll look by admitting this, but I had no idea that the reason our planet had earthquakes was because the Earth recycles carbon. I’m SURE my science teachers shared that with me, but apparently it didn’t stick. What a great thing to add to our list of available Saturday activities. I’ll be bookmarking the Planetarium schedule for sure! Marc may have gotten a little droopy eyed in the dark room with the seats leaned back, but we’ll blame that on the mid-afternoon slump!
In several places, the have replicas of NASA work stations. This one reminded me of watching the movie Apollo 13, and I was struck by the “Apollo 7” matchbook. Wild. It was such a different time! I got to talking about how sad I think it is that they’ve discontinued the space program. Corrinne said that when she grows up, they’ll have to start it back up again. “Why is that,” I asked her. She promptly replied, “Because by the time I grow up people are going to need more glowing moon rock!”
The upper level of the museum has a really cool interactive area for kids. There are areas to create your own gadgets, and have slinky races on a conveyor belt. Marc kept saying, “It’s fun for a girl or a boy!” He’s so clever; you can see why I married him.
The giant light board took me right back to childhood! I kept calling it a Light Bright; remember those?! Man! I always wanted one of my own. Of course this giant one was way cooler, and Carter the resident artist created an awesome Godzilla piece!
If the museum and hands-on activities weren’t cool enough, there is an amazing playground behind it. Corrinne showed off her monkey bar skills and insisted that I try too. I did it alright, but not nearly as fast, and I cannot skip bars like she can!
We had a great time, and I’m thrilled that we have a memebership and will be able to go back as much as we want in the future. If you’re interested in membership, check out this page on the TASM website. Also, when you’re thinking about summer activities and museum membership, take a look at the Oklahoma Museum Network. I found out that for an additional $40 with my TASM membership, we get admission to several other awesome museums in our state – I smell some Summer road trips!
See you around town!
Missy
