Leonardo Divinci, Ben Franklin and King Tut, Oh My! What do these guys have in common? Well us of course. Did you read the title of the this Blog?
Last Saturday we were up Allentown way. We had won a set of tickets to the Davinci Science Center from the school Quinn and Hope go to. I was not expecting much, never hearing of this place before. Their Web site was not immpressive either. Although looking at it again, there is a lot to do on the site. Well the Science Center was really nice. It was small when you think of a Philly Museum, but everything worked. Let m explain. Most of the times when you go to a museum in Philly, the exhibit will look great, but if it is older than year, more than likely, it would be broke and not work right. Not this place. A very nice modern building with two floors and a theatre. The first floor was broken up into sections. From 'What Hurts', an exhibit on he hospital room and all of the machines and devices used to help yo
u get well. To 'La Laguna' a Please Touch Pol with Sea Urchins, Crabs, and other sea creatures. There were about a dozen more exhibits. What held he kids attention the most was the TV Weather Studio. The Blue Screen was super fun. You can pick a weather background. They had a blue coat to go with the blue screen. Here is Hope wearing the coat in a snow storm. Upstairs they had a paper plane exhibit and a very cool Dinosaur made from a Auto Assembly Plant Robot. There were also a couple rooms for Birthdays. On the way out, we passed through theirsnack area. Two observations, first, they had an Ice machine of the future that used almost no electricity and a Pizza vending machine that took the pizza from the freezer into the Micorwave, out the chute. we didn't get one, but thought it was cool. This is the type of machine that would have always have been empty if we had one in college. Here's a couple more pics: Water Cyrstalizing and the Dinosaur robot.
Later on that week we met Lesley's cousin Jeanette and kids in Philly to go to the King Tut Exhibit in the Ben Franklin Institute. Everyone knows the story of the discovery of King Tut. Or better yet, King Tutankhamun. The exhibit is by reservation only. We have a membership and still paid $20 per adult and $11 per kid. When it was our time we lined up near the entrance to the exhibit. Heavy Security and a long queue line. I got the audio tour also, $7. Omar Sharrif telling me all about Egypt and it's rulers. Is Omar Egyptian? I know he played one in a movie. 
Anyway the exhibit started out with a short movie and then onto the first gallery. There were 5 or 6 galleries in all. We were educated to the ancestry of King Tut. From his Great Grandfather, Amenhotep II, to Tut himself. There were many carvings of wood and stone. Many gods and gooddesses. There were also little statues know as Shabtis. These are suppose re-animate when the mummy in the tomb reachesd the after life. Shabtis' have a spell written on them as an instruction as to what they will do. There was also a lot of ceramic fruit and everyday items all suppose to come back to help out the dead in the after-life. There were many samples of chairs and tables from each of the tombs of these mummies. There were also about 3-4 scale boats. We were not allowed to take pictures. I would have taken a lot. The last two galleries were Tut and Tut only artifacts. All items taken from his tomb. A lot of gold. Not the main head peice shown above, but almost everything else. Knives, Chest plates, and and jewlery. One of the most impressive things I noticed was that in all of the wood work there was incredible inlay and detail. The other strong thought throughout the exhibit was knowing that someone 3500 years ago made all of these items. Is there anything closer to imortality than this? After the last gallerie you are escorted into a gift store and then exit out by the Sport Extreme room. In the little ante-room after the store is some phorensics on the way Tut might have died. Also a very life like bust created from the dimensions of his skull. This is the same procedure used in re-creating a 
face from a skull in a Jane/John Doe. After seeing the pictures of the un-wrapped mummy and seeing the jewelry and items buried with the king, this bust reminds us that he was just a boy. A boy king who brought back the gods to Egypt, but a boy non-the-less.
Last Saturday we were up Allentown way. We had won a set of tickets to the Davinci Science Center from the school Quinn and Hope go to. I was not expecting much, never hearing of this place before. Their Web site was not immpressive either. Although looking at it again, there is a lot to do on the site. Well the Science Center was really nice. It was small when you think of a Philly Museum, but everything worked. Let m explain. Most of the times when you go to a museum in Philly, the exhibit will look great, but if it is older than year, more than likely, it would be broke and not work right. Not this place. A very nice modern building with two floors and a theatre. The first floor was broken up into sections. From 'What Hurts', an exhibit on he hospital room and all of the machines and devices used to help yo
u get well. To 'La Laguna' a Please Touch Pol with Sea Urchins, Crabs, and other sea creatures. There were about a dozen more exhibits. What held he kids attention the most was the TV Weather Studio. The Blue Screen was super fun. You can pick a weather background. They had a blue coat to go with the blue screen. Here is Hope wearing the coat in a snow storm. Upstairs they had a paper plane exhibit and a very cool Dinosaur made from a Auto Assembly Plant Robot. There were also a couple rooms for Birthdays. On the way out, we passed through theirsnack area. Two observations, first, they had an Ice machine of the future that used almost no electricity and a Pizza vending machine that took the pizza from the freezer into the Micorwave, out the chute. we didn't get one, but thought it was cool. This is the type of machine that would have always have been empty if we had one in college. Here's a couple more pics: Water Cyrstalizing and the Dinosaur robot. Later on that week we met Lesley's cousin Jeanette and kids in Philly to go to the King Tut Exhibit in the Ben Franklin Institute. Everyone knows the story of the discovery of King Tut. Or better yet, King Tutankhamun. The exhibit is by reservation only. We have a membership and still paid $20 per adult and $11 per kid. When it was our time we lined up near the entrance to the exhibit. Heavy Security and a long queue line. I got the audio tour also, $7. Omar Sharrif telling me all about Egypt and it's rulers. Is Omar Egyptian? I know he played one in a movie. Anyway the exhibit started out with a short movie and then onto the first gallery. There were 5 or 6 galleries in all. We were educated to the ancestry of King Tut. From his Great Grandfather, Amenhotep II, to Tut himself. There were many carvings of wood and stone. Many gods and gooddesses. There were also little statues know as Shabtis. These are suppose re-animate when the mummy in the tomb reachesd the after life. Shabtis' have a spell written on them as an instruction as to what they will do. There was also a lot of ceramic fruit and everyday items all suppose to come back to help out the dead in the after-life. There were many samples of chairs and tables from each of the tombs of these mummies. There were also about 3-4 scale boats. We were not allowed to take pictures. I would have taken a lot. The last two galleries were Tut and Tut only artifacts. All items taken from his tomb. A lot of gold. Not the main head peice shown above, but almost everything else. Knives, Chest plates, and and jewlery. One of the most impressive things I noticed was that in all of the wood work there was incredible inlay and detail. The other strong thought throughout the exhibit was knowing that someone 3500 years ago made all of these items. Is there anything closer to imortality than this? After the last gallerie you are escorted into a gift store and then exit out by the Sport Extreme room. In the little ante-room after the store is some phorensics on the way Tut might have died. Also a very life like bust created from the dimensions of his skull. This is the same procedure used in re-creating a 
face from a skull in a Jane/John Doe. After seeing the pictures of the un-wrapped mummy and seeing the jewelry and items buried with the king, this bust reminds us that he was just a boy. A boy king who brought back the gods to Egypt, but a boy non-the-less. Here is your Ancient Egypt lesson for today: We all know that King Tut is short for King Tutankhamen. What you might not know is that he was not born with this name. King Tut was originally short for Tutankhaton. The ...aton at the end of his name was in tribute to Aton the sun god whom Tut's father had tried to make the sole god of Egypt and failed. Tut later changed the ...aton to ...amen in tribute to his bringing back the gods during his reign.
So, we all now feel pretty well educated for the week. If you would like more details about the above, send me an email.
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