Hot town, summer at the MOHAI

To celebrate summer and the holiday weekend, my mom and I decided to head down to the Museum of History & Industry again to see what's new since it opened in December. It was a beautiful, sunny Seattle summer day, so what better way to spend it than on South Lake Union, taking in some history?

I think we both had the theory that since we were already there when it opened, and spent 15000 hours walking through it, this visit would be a much quicker trip. Indeed, we even had three stops planned for after the museum; however, the only one we actually got around to was the one that was five blocks away. So, here's my tip for anyone who enjoys history and is planning on visiting MOHAI more than once: plan for just as much time on your subsequent visits as you did on the first! With revisiting your favorite exhibits, playing at spots you couldn't get to the first time, and new games and exhibits, you're going to get sucked in for just as long every single time.

We knew going in that we were going to go back to the Seattle's past-and-present film and Seattle's Great Fire. In fact, the Great Fire was going to be our first stop, until I saw the theater for the other film and veered her in there. Even on the second or third viewing, the music is so great! All those great Seattle musicians! We agreed that the film is put together so well that it makes us feel proud to be from here. My mom even wondered if you could feel that way about any other city. (I think probably so, as long as the film about the city is edited and narrated well, but it's just so easy to feel proud to be from the Seattle/western Washington area! All of the technology and innovations from here, the music, and the breathtaking scenery...)

After that, we went through each floor rather haphazardly. We went in the general chronological direction, but having seen so much of it last time, there were portions we knew we could either skip or go through quickly. But one place we weren't going to skip was the Great Fire film. Even on the second (or third?) viewing, we still loved the singing typewriter and glue pot (with its Scandinavian-accented "I'm yust a glooo pot."). I think that's going to be a destination every time we visit.

But here's the best part of the day's trip: new games and exhibits! Already! I figure some of them were probably things that were there the first time but that I couldn't get to, or were things that they were planning on putting in but hadn't been able to by the grand opening. But still, they were new to me! Fun!

The most fun one was one I'm sure wasn't there in December: at the end of the "World City" wall (I believe we were still in that area) was a section about authors from the northwest and books that take place in the region. But! There are two interactive kiosks where you could "write" your own book about the area! You choose the words for your title from a bunch of options (but your title can only be x words long; I had to edit mine a couple of times), then select artwork that you want to use. Next, you write the synopsis of your "book": you have the choice of either writing it completely on your own, or being guided, which reminded me of Mad Libs. Once you're done with your book, you're asked if you want to display your book on the wall of books created by other visitors, as well as real books by local authors or about local areas. That was pretty cool, seeing my "book" pop up on the big screen for everyone to see. And then! the kiosk lets you read about the real books, and it even gives you a list of recommended books, based on the book you created! How crazy and cool! I was seriously amazed when I saw the recommended books. I felt like a little kid, amazed that the machine could read my mind or something :)   (Ah, fun museums, they can make everyone feel like a kid.) Not only was I impressed by the fun of creating my own "book" and seeing it displayed, but I was also just flabbergasted by how many different ways this one kiosk could be used: a game of making your own book, a learning center about local authors, a learning center about locally-based books, and a book recommendation machine. Four birds with one stone! One very fun stone! MOHAI people, I've said it before, and I'm saying it again: You're amazing.  (Can I come work for you? If not, can I just come live in your museum?)

*sigh*

The next fun thing that I didn't do in December (but I think this one was there then) was the Neighborhoods game. I was looking at the Boeing display when my ears suddenly perked up at the unmistakable notes of "Soul Bossa Nova" in the distance. I followed the tune until I found, off in a corner room in one of the exhibit areas (the 1960s, perhaps), a touch-screen with a colorful and fun-looking image. It had a map of the Puget Sound region, with groovy shapes representing different neighborhoods; at the bottom of the screen was the word "neighborhoods." The fun thing about that is that each letter comes from a picture taken around the region. For example, the first thing I noticed was that the R was the Rainier R. If you touch the letter, the full picture pops up, so you can see the complete context of the one letter. When you close the picture, the letter's picture changes to a different one, so you have a new version of the letter! (On the way home, I was giggling to myself because I kept seeing the real-life version of many of the letters in the "neighborhoods" image.)

When you touch one of the actual neighborhoods on the map, an information box pops up, telling you about that particular neighborhood and any comments visitors have left about that area. That was cool, but then my mom pointed out that there was a game you could play! Ooh, more games! Okay, let's play. Similar to the Shaping Our City area, the screen asks you multiple-choice questions about your preferences. These questions were things like where you'd rather go if you only had an hour to spend (watching a band, walking along the waterfront, etc.), which mode of water transportation you prefer (yacht, sailboat, kayak, etc.), what type of restaurant you prefer (a cafe, take-out, etc.), what type of named neighborhood you'd rather live in (one named after a person, one named after geographical features, etc.), things like that. At the end, it generates a neighborhood that's perfect for you, and one that isn't. Mine actually came out pretty good. If you know the region well enough, you kind of get a feeling for what neighborhood(s) the game is thinking you might like, or which neighborhoods each option would lead to. At one point, I thought it was going to tell me I should live at Green Lake or downtown, which would be fun, too. But in the end, it gave me the U District. Perfect! Me, the UW, the artsiness and eclecticism of the Ave... yeah, the game got that one right.

Other exhibits in the museum are already rotating, which shouldn't have surprised me, since it's been open for over six months now. The third floor's exhibit room is now the museum's "Still Afloat" feature about houseboats of Seattle. Here were mini layouts of houseboat fronts (e.g. the front door and front lawn of the boats), a little diorama of waterfront (minus the actual water) and a houseboat (The diorama was even completed with trash under the water level, like bottles, cans, and a toilet, as well as seashells.), and big, bright magnets that kids (of all ages :D ) could use to create their own waterfront scene on a magnetic wall. Items on the ground floor had also changed (the UPS truck has been moved out and a logging truck has been moved in, but not in the same location), so I wonder if even those larger items, which seemed like they'd be permanent, will rotate. I guess I'll have to go back in a few months and check ;)