Lissa and I had planned to go to Santa Fe yesterday to see art, but we didn’t really want to drive in snow, so we stuck around town and went to Explora instead.

The museum’s a hoot in a couple of ways. First of all, they’ve got a lot of sciency exhibits that allow you to play with the concepts involved: build dams to see divert water hither and yon, bend lasers in a plexiglass tube, watch light bend through a stream of flowing water. The aesthetics of manipulation are a delight. But what’s even more fun is watching other people (kids and adults) play. I probably spent half my time playing myself, and the other half watching other people play in ways I never would have thought of.

The most fun: standing on the stairway looking down on the first floor and watching the little kids figure out how a column of rising air can support a floating beach ball. Or a smaller floating basketball. Or both balls at the same time!