Took the family to Boston's Museum of Science today. I used to love that place when I was a kid and I probably haven't been back for...it must be over ten years now.

Big thumbs up on what they've done with the place. It's big, with more exhibits and hands-on stuff than I ever remember, with pretty much everything kept clean and in working order. There was plenty -- more than enough -- to look at and for even our six year old to mess around with (and hopefully absorb something from).

Some of the things they've got there are the same as I remember as a kid, and some of that has been updated a bit -- the T-Rex has a more horizontal stance than it did when I was a kid and it dragged its tail on the ground behind it, for instance -- but the meteorite is still there, the Sky Lab replica, the Apollo capsule...

We didn't hit the IMAX theater or the Digital 3D theater but we did do the Planetarium -- same place it's always been since who knows when. And here's my only complaint, and it's the same complaint I had the last time I saw something there -- they try to get creative with the show and end up blowing it. PLEASE, we do NOT need a live actor in a planetarium show. We do not need a live demonstration using audience helpers to demonstrate why the moon changes phases. We have all that lovely technology right there. Most kids in an urban or suburban setting will never see the night sky like that planetarium equipment is able to display it (I'm sorry to say). How about using it and instilling some of the wonder of science and the night sky that that facility is capable of rather than consigning it to life as a glorified slide projector and breaking out the live demo using a flashlight and a tennis ball? Bleh.

Anyway, we'll be back for more regardless of that minor glitch.