Franklin Institute/Body Worlds Adventure

Shayna and I went to the Franklin Institute last night to see the Body Worlds exhibit and to see the IMAX film, Human Body, that goes with it. This is the last weekend to see the exhibit. We really had quite a lucky and fun night.

We planned to go at night, because its much cheaper. So around 6:30pm, on the way down, I called the Info. number. I found out that the museum was open 24 hours because of the exhibit ending on the 23rd. It recommended buying tickets ahead of time, so I called the number to purchase tickets. The woman on the phone said that it was sold out until midnight and she recommended not going. I decided to go anyway and just see what happens. I was also told it may be hard to get into the museums parking lot (which I like because its under the museum and you don't have to go outside-safe-plus it was pouring rain).

LUCKY THING #1: We got into the museum parking lot and got a great spot, 1st floor near the elevator (someone was leaving). Note:there was a man in a raincoat standing at the entrance waving cars away before we pulled up. and there were orange cones. as I pulled up the man had walked inside and I drove through the cones- figured I would try.

We went into the museum atrium area where the ticket counter is, the Body Worlds exhibit area, IMAX, cafe, etc. It was packed with people of all ages, kind of a festival/concert type feel in the air. WE got in line for tickets and were told only the 12;30am time was left for the Body Worlds. There were 9pm tickets for the IMAX movie.

LUCKY THING #2: The museum was open all night.

LUCKY THING #3: the museum was free.

LUCKY THING #4: the ticket line was fairly short, after we left it was very long.

It was already 7pm- and since we had the movie at 9 and the entire museum was free, we decided to stay and got the 12:30am Body Worlds tix (in retrospect now, most likely they would have let us in earlier but we were having fun anyway).

So we put our coats in a locker and went and enjoyed some of the museum until time for the 9pm movie.

LUCKY THING #5: The museum had a LOT of new exhibits since the last time we were there, so much that we didn't even get to see it all. I honestly can say that the Franklin Institute is one of the most interesting and fun museums I have ever been to. It has lots of very creative and fun interactive exhibits, even tons of things Skyler would love.

We went to the Kid Science and Space areas, and then went to the IMAX movie.

LUCKY THING #6: I didn't realize this when I purchased the tickets, but they were having a special just that night. All tickets for movies 9pm and later were only .75! Normally, when purchased with Body Worlds, it is $5. They only charged us for one ticket so Shayna's was free.

LUCKY THING #7: they made a new Philadelphia movie. At the beginning of every IMAX movie, they show a short film about Philadelphia. Over the years, I had seen the same film about 5 times. So I was dreading seeing it yet again. But - SURPRISE- they finally made an updated new Philadelphia movie!

The Human Body IMAX movie is one of the best IMAX movies I have ever seen. It was extremely good. if it comes to an IMAX near you or is showing, you must see it.

After the movie, we had about 2 hours to roam around. They were having a special Quizzo event in the Planetarium. We spent a little time listening but left because the museum itself was more interesting and the questions were ridiculously hard (this was at the end so no idea what they were earlier). Maybe aimed at all the smart PhD types who go to a place like the Franklin Institute on a Saturday night. Sorry I did not write them down to post here...but they were something like: this swiss scientist ____ was known as the father of _____; how many years does it take saturn to go around the sun; what speed is the earth moving in MPH; what 2 lawyers argued the case of ____& ____ (case I never heard of).

We went to the air, train, and new Heart area (that was a really nice hige exhibit area with lots of interactive things to do & see). There is also an interactive exhibit all about Ben Franklin but we didn't see the whole thing; also didn't have time to see the Isaac Newtown new section (it looked really cool).

Then at 12:30am we went to the Body Worlds- it was still full with people and Shayna was NOT the only child- but there were still mostly adults. While we were fully awake our feet did hurt and Shayna was slightly bored because it was crowded and hard to see plus not as fun/interactive as the rest of the museum.

LUCKY THING #8: We were interviewed by a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer! The article will be in this Monday's paper. She asked us questions and took our full names and ages.

The exhibit was fascinating. I liked the section about human embryos and pregnancy the best. Hopefully by showing how early the fetus looks like a baby, it will prevent some women from getting abortions. they showed actual fetus/embryos, as early as 4-5 weeks, and you could clearly see it starting to look like a baby. It showed just about every major illness- what it really looks like and obesity. Maybe this will get some people to quit smoking.

After the Body Worlds, we stopped in the Sports exhibit/area before going home and Shayna had fun racing a race car and climbing a wall...also they have a webcam set up.

So that was our fun and adventurous night!

To check out the Franklin Institute (this is a GREAT website!):

www.fi.edu

Bloodmobile video with music by "They Might Be Giants"-this is the video shown in the heart exhibit area. Very cute educational video, both Shayna & Skyler liked watching (as did I!). when you go to this link, there will be links to watch the video:

www.fi.edu/bloodmobile.html

To check out Body Worlds and to see if it will be near you (St. Louis is next):

www.bodyworlds.com