Vacation Road

We recently took a day trip to the Museum of Science & Technology – MOST in Syracuse, New York. It’s a really great museum! There is a lot to see. The museum hours are from 10 am to 5pm. We arrived around 11:30 am and left around 4:30 pm. The MOST is definitely on par with some of the museums in large cities.
Parking is on the street or in a parking garage. We parked in a parking garage just up the street to the left when facing the museum.
Once admitted, we explored the downstairs exhibits. We started off with matter and motion and science exhibits. There’s a little indoor cave for kids to crawl through. A very nice gemstone exhibit. A bunch of interactive physics exhibits for kids. The apothecary is full of old home remedies. There’s a chart on the wall which shows what herbs are remedies for which illnesses. A sign says the chart is available in the gift shop, but they didn’t have it, so take a picture of it, just in case.
The nano and space gallery was next to explore with a half hour demonstration in the planetarium. The planetarium is super cool! A nice overview of the current night sky was shown and where to look for constellations, such as the little dipper, big dipper and orion. The Hubble telescope was also discussed.
Next, we went to check out the cafe, which was the only disappointment in the museum. It consists only of several vending machines full of junk food. You can enter and leave the museum all day as you need to. However, we didn’t really have time for that. I highly recommend bringing your own snacks/lunch/drinks, especially if you bring kids. The museum is really missing out on sales by not providing a nice cafe like other museums have.
Next up was the dinosaur exhibit. This is really cool! There are huge life size dinosaurs which actually move! There was also a traveling exhibit related to the Hubble telescope.
We watched a 45 minute IMAX movie about the Hubble telescope. The IMAX theater is a huge domed screen. The seat rows are a little high up and steep, but the domed screen circles around you and puts you right in the action of the movie. With the Hubble movie, it was like you were right there in space with the astronauts when they were working on repairing the Hubble. It was a very informative documentary. It was narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio. You can go to the museum for only the IMAX movie without having to pay for the whole museum admission.
After the IMAX viewing, we made our way up to the top floor for exhibits about air space and alternative forms of energy and toothpick world, which was super impressive. It consisted of replicas of various buildings throughout the world made out of toothpicks. Super cool!
By the time we left the museum, we were starving since lunch consisted of vending machine snacks. We ended up eating dinner at Peppino’s Neopolitan, a pizzeria within walking distance of the MOST. The pizza choices are all non-traditional healthy topping choices, with a custom option to add your own traditional toppings. Some of the non-traditional topping choices were basil, arugula, artichokes, etc. The crust is very light and airy. Each topping is a little pricey at $3 each, with the basic pizza starting at $13. However, each personal pizza is pretty large. It’s probably the size of a small pizza. I had the gluten free pizza. It was very good. The crust was very crispy. For the price of the toppings though, it was a little sparsely topped. Bread is served at the beginning of the meal. It wasn’t gluten free, so I didn’t have any, but everyone else seemed to like it. The atmosphere was pretty calm and relaxing. At 5:00 pm, it was fairly empty. Finding the bathroom on your own is difficult. Tip: It’s to the left, all the way back, in a nook to the right by the glass booth with the guy packaging pasta. The waitress was very nice and the food was served pretty quickly.