MOAS

Today we visited MOAS, which is not that far away from saying MOSSAD, or NORAD, or even MOAB.  I wonder if the locals actually call it "Moas" or instead just say, "the museum," which seems easier despite the extra syllables.  For one, you'll have other people wondering if you're a military spy ready to drop the Mother Of All Bombs on someone.  So to avoid confusion, rather than call this place MOAS all the time, we'll just say "the Daytona Museum."  It has a nice, more relatable feel about it, versus MOAS, which could very well be an acronym for "Mother Of All Storehouses."

Thinking on it further, perhaps they call it MOAS to avoid the inevitable comparison to race cars, beaches and so forth.  "No, sir, the Daytona Museum is not about race cars.  There aren't race cars here.  Well, there's one or two.  But it's not a race car museum, sir."

Race cars or not, we decided to make a trip there today, and it was well worth the visit.  It was - as most museums have been lately - bigger than you think.  For example, there were two entire train sections inside.

Getting ready to leave the station!

This is the one train car, which was just the most magical thing Daddy has seen in a long time.  I mean, look at the front part of this car:

Easily the greatest train car compartment ever assembled.

It was so gloriously retro, created as if this is what everything will look like in the future, and I'll be honest:  this is where we went wrong.  The future did not look like this, and therefore everything else was a pretty darn big letdown.  But seriously, this was a great looking vehicle.  Here's Ba-Ba, about to disembark:

Ba-Ba is ready to leave, shouting out, "Owego!"

There was another train car there too, and it was equally marvelous.  I think it was from a decade earlier, and it was another kind of awesome.  Too bad we couldn't get inside these cars, but they were certainly bringing smiles on our faces when we got to glance inside.

Trains in a Museum.

I want one.  I'm not entirely sure where I can put it, though.  Perhaps I'll clear out some room in the basement.  Yes, maybe that will work.  What's wonderful is the amount of renovating they did to these before putting them on display.  Both look really great inside, which you could see through each window as you walked alongside.  Here's Ba-Ba again, inside the other train, about to take off.

Ba-Ba tries to figure out how to rescue us from inside the train.

Not really.  These trains didn't go anywhere.  But this does set up the fact that Daddy still wants to go to a nearby train museum in Gwinnett County.  And this was just a tiny portion of this museum too.  Notice I didn't call it MOAS, because that would:

a) sound weird

b) be slightly confusing to people who don't remember what MOAS stood for

c) remind people of desert spy bombs or something

Anyway, moving on:  this next part is shocking.

Yes.  Shocking indeed.

At least that's what the sign said.  The place we spent a lot of time in was the children's museum.  Which makes sense, because that's approximately our scientific level of learning, all of us put together.  Of course, not really:  Madison is a lot smarter than that.  The rest of us lag behind considerably.  For example, you can see here below that Madison is doing a scientific experiment:

How do you want your pizza?  With felt or not?

This chemical change you see demonstrated above is as follows, when rigorous heat is applied:

Pi + Zz + A2 -> PiZzA

Okay, so this wasn't exactly scientific.  But there were some really, really good illustrations here in the children's section that helped illustrate weight on other planets, air pressure, mechanics and physics, and of course the favorite, optical illusions:

Madison clearly needs to shave.

This is Madison and Daddy's face combined.  She's looking through a mirror/glass that puts parts of Daddy's face (on the other side) with her reflection.  The end result is... weird?  Here's another set-up for something similar below:

Mirror Images

You can see Ba-Ba and Madison here on one side, and the light shining on the mirror.  That light makes it easier for the other side to see through this one-way mirror, and see a combination of two different faces.  Here's another weird example:

Madi-Ba

Madison is looking at her reflection here in a one-way mirror.  But because she can see through it, and because Ba-Ba's face is illuminated, she can see his face too.  So the two line up, and create one ...uh... unique face.  

There were other things to do in the children's section too:

This was harder.  At least that's what it says on the pole there.

Madison was learning about simple machines, like the one you can see above:  a pulley.  She also made roller coasters on the walls, and spoke into tubes that stretched from one side of the room to the other so she could hear Daddy's voice from somewhere a long ways away.

MADISON:  (talking into tube)  "Hello?"

TUBE:  "I am the voice of OZ!  TREMBLE AT MY VOICE!"

MADISON:  "You're not Oz.  You're Daddy!"

TUBE:  "BACK AWAY FROM THE TUBE!  YOUR BREATH IS TERRIBLE!"

Meanwhile, the grown-ups were doing science as well:

Auditioning for the Electric Light Orchestra

Ba-Ba is seen here, making a little light music.  Beams of light projected downward, and when interrupted, they create musical tones depending on which ones are blocked.  Theoretically, you can make music this way.  Oh, and look at Madison's fast ball here!

"It's Toss Across!"

Okay, this one isn't that fast.  But she did get into the upper 20's, and for the record, it's a tennis ball she's throwing.  So give her a break.  We did think it would be just as fun to see who could set the record for slowest toss.  Daddy won that one easily with a six mile per hour gem that sailed right into the strike zone.  Very slowly!

This is Planet Earth.
Bop bop bop bop bop bop bop bop.

Our next stop along in "the museum" was the planetarium, which you'll be delighted to know is not called "POAS."  This was a half-hour live presentation about the night sky tonight, which we won't really get to see because the weather might be cloudy tonight and the lights at Daytona are a little on the bright side, so it's all theoretical.  IF you didn't have any lights or condos, or clouds, then this is what you would see.  It was actually interesting, although some of it we already knew.  Madison told us as much as we exited.  She said she learned a lot at the North Georgia Planetarium.  It seems as if she's touring all the planetariums all of the sudden.  Anyway, we learned about Orion again, and Beetlejuice.  Or rather, Betelgeuse.  I get the two confused.  Apparently Betelgeuse is going to explode any minute.  Or possibly already has six hundred and fifty years ago.  That's the weird thing about these long distances.

Anyway, the presentation was good, going from constellations to the International Space Station to the general vastness of space.  That last topic alone should humble people, but instead some think, "Yep, I'm the center of all that."

This part of the museum comes to life after sundown.
Stay away from this part of the museum after sundown.

Afterwards, we looked around the museum some more, because there was so much more to see.  You can see a warehouse area above, this entire place behind glass that has all these random items on shelves, all categorized and visible to viewers.  Here you can see sculptures, colonial artifacts, the Ark of the Covenant, pieces of the alien spaceship found in New Mexico, the National Treasure, and Elvis Presley himself (he was lurking towards the back, munching on a peanut butter and banana sandwich).  

Here below was another section, an area dedicated to the old drug stores of... well, not that long ago, really.  My grandfather used to take me to one in Cleveland.  There was a bar, where you could order soda or ice cream or coffee.  Here are some old tables you can have a seat at, and wait for your server to come by.

Hanging out at Newcomer Drugs

No one ever came.  But we did get to see all the amazing furniture related to this old pharmacy.  They had all kinds of jars and glasses filled with presumably fake medications and drugs.  If they were real, I'm afraid they've probably expired, or are possibly about to explode.  

Waiting for her prescription

It was such a neat look into the past though, just a tiny replica from a time that used to be.  I think the one movie this reminds me of is "It's a Wonderful Life."  It would be really awesome to see this sort of vintage place pop up again.  Or, we could go check out Cleveland's square and see if that drug store is still open.

Waiting for her pop.

Madison is still waiting.  But she eventually got up when she saw all the stuffed animals across the way.  Here's a shot of she and Mommy, peeking into a really large doll house:

Look out, teddy bears!  Behind you!

Those bears have no idea what is behind them.  If they did, there's probably be little bear presents on that couch.  These giants are right behind them.  This is the stuff of nightmares for tiny bears.  Or... perhaps they're used to it.  

Who has better teeth?

Ah, the tribal section of the museum, where we get to see all these masks that Indians and Africans made for some tribal sort of reason that I don't remember because we were too busy making fun of all the goofy faces.  Some of them gave Madison the creeps, so we didn't stay there too long.  She was ready to see the giant fossil bones.  So off we went to see a giant...

A giant sloth!  We'd better slowly run for it!

...sloth.  Yes, this is the sole giant skeleton thingy in this entire museum.  So marks against them for that.  If you want a successful museum, you need more than one giant skeleton thingy, and at least one of those giant skeleton thingies has to be a reptile with scary teeth.  But seriously, this section was nice, with some mastodon pieces, a large armadillo thing (named a glyptodon, which is Latin for "large armadillo thing"), and of course the giant sloth you see here as well.  You can see Madison running for her life above, but she probably doesn't have to run too fast, given that it is a sloth.  

They're looking at something... not sure what...

Our final visit was to the art section, which had some good pieces, and some other pieces too.  Let's just say it's a good thing these are older pieces with historical value, otherwise, they'd be worth as much as glyptodon droppings.   Some of these were really good though, and amazingly lifelike.  Some artists have such skill - even before all this technology was present, and better artistic materials to work with, there are amazing paintings to be seen.

And that said, next time we come to Daytona, we may find ourselves going to "the art museum" right nearby.

The rest of the day was spent chillin' by the shore.  Because it was legitimately colder today, with breezes that made yesterday look like spring break, and today more like winter break.  Hardly anyone was out there on the sand today, and no ice cream trucks or anything.  On the balcony, it was necessary to wear a sweatshirt, whereas yesterday we were overheating on the golf course.

Speaking of which, the Masters started today.  Strangely, in the car Daddy and Madison were listening to that.  Imagine listening to golf, of all things, on the radio.  Anyway, we had spaghetti, read books, while Mommy looked up ancestry... and pretty much that was it for the day.  We had this big flurry of activity mid-day with the museum, and the rest of the day was a great big nothing.  Which is what the sky looked like today with that overcast horizon.  It turns out the planetarium guy was right - no stars tonight.  And everything is colder.  It's supposed to be cold again back home too, which is amazing to think about.

Time for bed tonight - we have a bit of a drive ahead of us tomorrow!