Day two in Santa Barbara started out mich the same as the first...at Dune. We had some very good coffee and pastries and then headed to the Moxi Science museum. This museum is full of interactive exhibits for kids (and adults) to learn about everything from physics to sounds to light. The first thing you see upon entering the museum is a guitar so big you can sit in it. We did. There was also a separate set of strings with a wheel behind them that highlighted the vibrations. Dad really enjoyed this one. It looked something like this.
The second floor seemed to be all about motion, including lots of cool slow motion video capture and a race track that could be manipulated. People could build their own cars and then race them against other competitors. This is the automated ramp that carried the cars up to the starting line.
Moxi was a great experience. Although it was primarily targeted at children, there were plenty of activities for an adult, and there were some really interesting exhibits and notes about how some of these somewhat silly looking tactile experiences related to real world jobs and applications. Dad learned that in most movies the only sounds that is recorded when filming is the actors voices. Everything else, including footsteps, doors opening, and even a pat on the back, is handled in post processing. This was part of an exhibit when you could use everyday objects to try and replicate sounds on a screen.
Our brains were now completely full of science, so it was definitely time for a bit of pretend. We walked along the beach to one of Santa Barbara's many playgrounds where Remy ran a very successful shipping business for an hour.
The first floor of the museum also had two giant marble tracks. The input required was minimal, but Remy really enjoyed watching the ballove down the tracks.
After Moxi we went to the pier to check out the Marine center. We got to pet a shark, a stingray, several anemone, and a sea slug. We also got to do some analysis on soil from the ocean floor underneath the pier.
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