Day 2 part 2

Next, we went to the National Canal Museum. We had never heard of it before, but it was connected to the Crayola Factory and was included in admission, so why not. We were glad we took the time to check it out. It was pretty cool.

We learned how to navigate boats over a 90 foot model canal. It was fun to get the boats up and over hills using locks. It was also fun to add coal through a chute. Christian especially loved the water and got a little wet. (OK, really his shirt was so soaked that when we left we had him take off his shirt and put on his winter coat without it. It was cold out there and he would have been freezing walking back to our van.)

We also learned about how canalers lived about a hundred years ago. We could pretend to wash clothes on a washboard, (I am so thankful for a washing machine! Maybe I ought to be happier about doing laundry.)gather eggs, and steer boats.

As we learned about simple machines such as pulleys, levers, and inclined planes I couldn't help but compare our hands on learning to the episodes of Sid the Science Kid that we have seen so many times. It was pretty neat to see more good real life examples of these concepts.

There was also a really neat train portion of the museum. It was fun to watch a huge model train go around and around, turn a train light on and off, and weigh ourselves on really old scales. As if we hadn't had enough fun, the day wasn't done! One more day 2 entry coming up.