Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, NJ

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Another cold morning in The Big Apple.  NYCity Mama reads the temperature from her iPhone.  18 degrees. “Ah. Ok, well, at least we’re going to be inside today,” she says to herself.  She loves weekends and that’s mostly because her husband is home, which means time with him, but also an extra set of hands to help out with the kids.

They start getting ready to head out of the apartment. Her husband asks if he should get the car from the garage.  But Mama declines the offer, dreading having to get everyone under wraps and ready to go, with all the necessary amenities in a bag, by herself.  And though she does this all the time during the week, something comes over her when her husband is around.  Almost like the “survival mode” button turns off and she begins to rely on him more to remember things, carry things, do things.  Thus, he helps her get everything  and everyone together and they head out.

Not even a minute outside and Mama is feeling the bitter cold seeping through her thin scarf.  They arrive to the garage and the wait is long, to the point where Mama’s toes are beginning to freeze up.

She grabs the kids and ventures into the mini-mart across the street, grabbing fruits and crackers and drinks, until she sees her husband outside with the car.

They pick up Mama’s sister and head out to the Liberty Science Center where she and several other mom bloggers received an invitation from SV Moms Group for a visit there.  She was able to bring her kids along, which for Mama is a huge plus, because leaving the kids behind, and finding someone to care for them, is way harder.

As her husband drives, and the kids and her sister are in the back watching the original Peter Pan, for the millionth time on the DVD, Mama is twittering away on her iPhone about her upcoming visit.

The ride to the LSC took them downtown, through the Hudson Tunnel.  Her sister starts talking about how she has gotten over the fear of tunnels, and goes into detail about all the things that she used to be afraid of as a child when going through tunnels, like, “I used to be afraid that they would crumble on top of me and the water would just engulf me.”

“Great.” says her husband, as Mama smiles, and her sister ends by saying, “But I am not afraid of it anymore.  See?  Not panicking.”

They exit the tunnel, with a sigh of relief, and not too long after find themselves in the parking lot of the science center.  It’s $7.00 for over one hour of parking.  They pay it knowing they will be there well over that time.

They walk into the impressive lobby, with wonderful displays all over, including the ceiling, and head over to the Welcome Desk.  They are greeted by a very nice woman who then directs them to the Jennifer  A. Chalsty Center to greet the Center’s representative who are expecting them.  The Chalsty Center is the Science Center’s educational area.  The boys were immediately attracted the the huge mural alongside the wall that lead them into the main area of the  Chalsty Center and took their time to enjoy it.

Here they were able to take part in activities for the children with live animals in the Interactive Theater, got a closer look at a Global Microscope, and do some arts and crafts in the Young Learner Lab, which the boys enjoyed very much.  And although the younger boys seemed more interested in the Knex ferris wheel after a while, her 11 year old seemed to get really into the arts and crafts activities.

Soon after, the headed back out to the main area of the Chalsty Center, where in the middle of the room there was a huge, black, inflatable dome.  They could hear someone inside, but weren’t sure what it was.  Not too long after, a large stream of people seemed to pop out of the dome, which Mama saw was actually called the Digital Star Lab. The Star Lab seemed more like a miniature planetarium, where the kids, and their parents enjoy an up close and personal tour through the stars and to the moon by Big Bird, Elmo, and other Sesame Street characters.  Though Mama’s 2 year old could not sit through the 20 minute presentation, her 3 year old loved it and was very much into the”journies” to the moon and back to Sesame Street.  Mama realized that it won’t be too long before her 2 year old will also “calm down” a bit more, long enough to enjoy these types of things.

After exiting the Digital Star Lab, which in itself seems like a 2 second adventure, they grab some cookies and drinks laid out for their group, and decide to explore as much as they can of this huge and amazing place.

At their first stop the boys enjoyed touching and interacting with the displays at the Communication exhibit, as well as looking at the live exhibits at the  Eat or Be Eaten exhibit.  The boys loved touching everything, and testing things out and just the fact the nothing was really terribly off limits to them.

The boys found the water bugs display quite intriguing, though Mama couldn’t look on for too long!  But, being true boys to the bone, they also thought the mosquito head they saw under a microscope was “cool”.

They loved the play area at the in Infection Connection, and spent a good portion of their time there playing and looking at everything around them.

At their next stop, they were greeted by one of the Energy Quest exhibit’s stations, Surface, where the boys and their ‘Titi’ (Auntie) had fun blowing air at each other and those around them.  They also enjoyed playing with the solar panels and figuring out how they work.

The next time Mama looked at her watch two and half hours had gone by and they still had tons to see!  But, the kids were starting to get tired, and they decided it was time to head back home to the city.  Both Mama and her hubby knew that this was going on their list as a family favorite place to visit, and sensing from the family’s excitement as they left, they knew they would come back soon!

NYCity Mama would like to thank SV Moms Group for making this trip possible and to the team at the Liberty Science Center for their wonderful hospitality.  Thank you!

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