The Franklin Institute

We spent quite a bit of time at the Franklin Institute.  First of all, it was cool.  And large.  And we have a membership to another museum that allowed us to enter for free.  Then add in the fact that it stayed open until 5:00 (most places closed at 4:00) and was relatively close to our apartment, so we could go for an hour after Caitlyn finished dancing and it became one of our favorite places in town!

Once again, Philadelphia loves Ben Franklin.  And this was, after all, the Franklin Institute.

Keegan is causing her chair to rotate by tipping the spinning wheel in different directions.

Kelsey, seeing what a difference a level can make when it comes to lifting.  Here she is trying to lift 75 pounds.

Here Kelsey sees if she is brave enough to keep her face to the hole as the bowling ball comes toward her.

 She was :).

Experimenting with centrifugal force

 Caitlyn and Keegan working hard on a domino track.

The finished product -->

I love these perpetual motion machines.  Very cool.

Everybody loved trying the moving surf board.

And yes, it was easier to balance with your feet spread widely apart :).

Keegan and Kelsey test their reflexes by seeing how quickly they can hit the gas pedal after the light turns green.  They got pretty fast!  I'm not sure that bodes well for when they turn sixteen.....

A very brave Keegan tries the sky bike.  I was awfully proud of her for giving it a shot!

This thing is much more difficult than it appears -

you try to release the ball so it rolls down the hill without hitting any of the paddles,

which raise and lower in a pattern. 

Kelsey releases the ball!

Kelsey and Keegan got pretty good at it.  They never reached their goal of doing it succesfully every time, but they each had a much higher rate of success than either Caitlyn or I did!

This is the end of today's tour of the Franklin Institute.  Please return soon to see more interesting exhibits :).