We've just spent the last 4 days exploring Taipei and its surrounding areas, taking in some stunning landscapes, historical landmarks, and some pretty awesome malls and markets.

Today we're heading to the north of Taipei to visit two incredible museums, the National

Taiwan Science Education Center, and the Taipei Astronomical Museum.

Alright, enough chit chat, let's kick off day 5.

Okay, good morning.

It is day 5 I think?

4? 5? 6?

I don't know.

Anyway, we are heading out today.

Science and Discovery Day.

We're going to a couple of museums, but first we need to get some lunch.

Is this a tour or are we just doing this?

Just doing it.

National Taiwan Science Education Center, something like that I think.

So this project right up here, they are building two new towers, twin towers in Taipei.

And they just started construction on it recently, so obviously not very tall yet, but they're going to be kind of cool.

They're going to try and put an artist's rendition here, but one of them is actually larger than the other.

They're identical twin towers, but they're like matching twin towers.

I think it's pretty cool.

Okay, we got on the bus.

It's about a 35 minute ride on the bus, and we should be there.

Woo!

We hopped on the bus using our EasyCards.

It cost 20 Taiwan dollars each for Lindsey and me, while the two older girls were only 10 Taiwan dollars each.

Harper being under 6, she rode for free.

Okay, so I think we're going to the 3 to 6 floor exhibition.

We're not doing the SkyCycle or TeamLab.

There's actually a TeamLab here, but we're not going to be doing that today, so I think it looks like it's 100 NTD for adults, so about 3 dollars, and for the kids, 70, so about 2 dollars and 10 cents.

Lindsey's going to get tickets, and we're going to head in.

Two adults and 5, 8, 7.

All right, a lot of places here, 6 and under, are free, so Harper's been free to a lot of things, so we had to get two kid tickets and two adult tickets, and it was 3.40.

I read something about a science fair.

Okay.

I didn't know a science fair was up in a job fair.

Very cool.

So the elevators and the escalators have these clear panels on them, so you can see the inner workings, how the actual elevator and escalator works.

So, like, back here, look, you can see the counterweights there, and then the chains, there's the counterweights going up, so that means the elevator's going to be coming down.

We kicked off our museum adventure on escalators with clear panels, letting us peek at their inner workings.

This is a cool way to see the engineering behind some everyday methods of moving us from one floor to another.

Step on them and wake it up.

That's how an escalator works?

Yeah.

Oh, okay, cool.

We rode up to the undersea area, which was perfect for Harper, who's been fascinated by all things underwater lately.

Is that called starfish or something?

Oh, yeah.

Baby likes the making starfishes.

Oh.

It's so cute, I love him.

It's my baby.

You love crabbies?

Yeah.

My favorite animal is otters.

Oh, wow.

They're so cute.

I like otters and crabs.

I like otters and crabs.

Next, we ventured into the human body exhibit.

The girls were fascinated by the displays showing our inner workings.

They even got to try on pregnancy suits, giving them a taste of what it feels like to carry a baby.

It's a pregnancy simulation suit.

Don't tell Lindsey.

Mommy, look at this.

I want to do that.

Do you, Abby?

I want to do that.

You do?

Is that what it feels like?

Nope.

That's what the baby looks like when it's in the mommy's belly.

And what he would look like?

Yeah.

Oh.

Is that what you look like?

Yeah.

As we explored, we came across some rather detailed 3D models of childbirth.

Is that one?

Yeah.

Not ready to tell us.

Our journey through the human body culminated in a trip through the digestive system.

And where did we end up?

Not the toilets, of course.

The girls found this absolutely hilarious.

Right there.

The what?

There's a butthole in the wall.

And we went in the butt.

And then he pooped out of us.

He pooped out of us.

What?

The electronics section was right up my alley.

Having worked in this field before our big adventure, it felt great to share some of my knowledge with the girls.

We stopped at various hands-on demos and I explained some light basics to them.

Pick one.

No, right there.

Okay, put it on.

So, that's diodes there.

It's only going to go one way.

So, this is electricity, okay?

This is your ground.

This is your power.

So, electricity flows from here down through there to ground.

Okay.

Okay, this is a diode right here.

So, there it works.

It lights that up.

If you try to do it the other way, it's not going to work.

Because the diode's protecting it.

Electricity can only go through that way.

It can't go through that way.

There's different materials.

Look, there's an LED, okay?

Plastic isn't a good conductor.

It doesn't take it.

Glass is a terrible conductor.

But they're good insulators, okay?

So, iron's a good conductor.

Paper is a terrible one.

But wire would be good, right?

Yeah.

What do you guys think about wood?

Do you think wood's going to be a good conductor?

No.

Transmit?

Yeah.

No.

What about aluminum foil?

Yeah.

I think it will be.

Yeah.

Yep, we were right.

Good job.

Is that cool?

You guys want to try it?

It was a nice moment, bridging my past career with our current world-schooling lifestyle.

The girls seemed genuinely interested, asking questions and eagerly trying out the interactive displays.

Who knows?

Maybe we've got a future engineer or two in our midst.

Wait, it lights it up.

There's a processor here.

This is an Intel processor.

We'll move to one of these other ones here.

Look, all those are little tiny switches, printed on those silicon wifers.

So instead of vacuum tubes, we're able to print on these things.

Whoa.

How cool is that?

That's so cool.

We're going to get a city out of printed circuit boards.

There's something cool in here.

Is that a real plant?

I think so.

Look how big it is.

Would you like to give that guy a hug?

In the life and environmental sciences area, the girls got up close with huge taxidermy animals, examined rice, fur, and microbes through microscopes, and even played at being scientists.

Talk like a scientist.

I need 25 cc of lemon juice.

Well, we may need to work on our medical drama dialogue.

Environment Discovery Zone.

After a short break at the library, it was back to exploring.

Those are the bodies.

Yeah, those are the bodies.

Next, we ventured into the physics area.

The highlight? A bike with square wheels.

Now, you might think that would make for a bumpy ride, but here's the cool part.

The road's designed with a pattern of inverted catenary curves.

In simpler terms, it looks like a series of speed bumps.

When the square wheels roll over these bumps, they create a surprisingly smooth ride.

Lily, being the tallest, was the only one with long enough legs to give it a fair shot.

While she still found it somewhat challenging,

I imagine it was way easier than trying to pedal square wheels on a flat surface.

Watching Lily navigate this unusual bike was a perfect demonstration of how clever engineering can turn something seemingly impossible into a functional and educational experience.

We did some gyroscope experiments and even lifted a car with a bunch of pulleys.

It was a great demonstration of the power of simple machines.

Pull those ropes through the pulleys, and she's going to lift that car.

As we exit the simple machines area, we see some kids riding a bike across a wire strung from balcony to balcony.

Yikes! Now we understand what the SkyCycle ticket was all about.

It's a really neat museum. Lots of interactive stuff for the girls to do.

This view is amazing.

The mist in the mountains. It's freaking awesome.

That's the science museum.

I can show you everything.

It would be a really boring video if I just walked around the museum the entire time, but I just want to give you a little bit of an idea of what's going on here.

It's very cool.

I could easily spend two or three hours here.

Easily, especially if you've got really interested kids and they want to look at everything and touch everything.

We've already been here for an hour and a half, so...

Yeah, so we only made it through half of it, and we've already been here for an hour and a half, so...

We only made it through half of it, and we've already been here for an hour and a half, so...

If that tells you anything.

It was $4.70. We got two adult tickets, two kid tickets, and then for the exhibit.

And then for one of the theaters, the Dome Theater, we have two adult tickets and three kid tickets, apparently.

I thought Harper was free, but I don't know.

Okay, we just got to the planetarium, space museum kind of thing.

Pretty neat. It's very crowded here, though.

We bought tickets for the museum and the Dome Theater.

While waiting for our showtime, we explored the main level of the museum.

It's mostly dedicated to space exploration and the moon landing.

They even have a water bottle rocket launcher.

We're in. I won't be filming any of this, but I'm excited.

They have headphones, so we can listen to it in English.

It's like the Great Space Adventure.

And I'm not sure how long it is, but...

It is really cool looking.

Yeah, so I think it would have been a really cute show, but they said it would be in English for us, but no, it wasn't at all, so...

We didn't understand it.

So the movie was, well, somewhat of a letdown.

And I want to stress this point.

We are not upset that a film in a non-English speaking country wasn't in English.

Our disappointment stems from being told it would be in English and buying tickets based on that expectation.

Had we known it wasn't going to be in English, we either would have been adequately prepared or we might not have purchased the tickets at all.

So, just be prepared that if you do decide to attend the film, it may or may not be in the language advertised.

But the rest of the museum is very cool.

Each floor has a different specialty.

The bottom is all about space exploration.

And as we move up, we study the planets, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the galaxies beyond.

It's awesome to see these huge models of the planets and interactive games for the girls to get their hands on.

That's the Space and Science Museum.

That was really neat.

We're really hungry though, so we're going to go see if we can find something to eat.

Alright, so that was the Taipei Astronomical Museum.

It was cool, but we're really hungry.

So, we need to go get some food.

You should definitely come check it out because the girls loved it and it was pretty cool.

But maybe skip the dome theater thing because they told us that we were going to be able to listen to it in English, but we weren't.

So, 45 minutes, we had no idea what was happening.

Speak German and Chinese, you will like it.