For my next entry in what may become a series on museums that are easier to visit when you have a car, I’d like to present the New York Hall of Science. We’re coming up on a holiday weekend, you probably have spare time on your hands, so why not check out New York’s less well known science museum? And if you arrive on a Sunday, from September through June, between 10 and 11 a.m., admission is free.

…This is the point that I remind you again that visiting with a car is the way to go, unless you live in Queens. Shoutout to my friends Val and Jackie, who drove down to visit me last winter and were happy to be up and about early on a Sunday to go do fun science things.
I love the American Museum of Natural History, but I have one quarrel with it: not enough interactive exhibits. I love to read, but put me in a museum with just things to look at and read and nothing to touch, and I will wander around aimlessly, letting my eyes glaze over. Okay, this is only somewhat true, but definitely truer than I usually admit to anyone.
So when I heard about the New York Hall of Science, which has interactive exhibits about engineering, the environment, sports, space, and more, I knew it’d be a perfect  place to take Val (an astrophysics PhD candidate) and Jackie (BS in meteorology). And it was! We wandered the museum for most of the morning, trying not to trample any of the many, many kids who were also taking advantage of the free admission.

We did not, unfortunately, get to check out the Science Playground (!) as I don’t think it’s open year-round, but I’ll definitely be going back to learn about the “scientific principles of motion, balance, sound, sight and simple machines” through awesome playground equipment. I did take this cool picture of myself in a fun house mirror, in which you can’t see me even though I’m standing there facing the mirror.

You can visit some of the rockets and spaceships from the early days of the space race, brought there for the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair.

Conveniently located near the Queens Museum and Flushing Meadows (home to the US Open), the New York Hall of Science is worth a visit, with or without kids—but definitely with friends (don’t be a creeper!). Where else can you use a microscope to inspect the germs on your hands, or learn about physics while testing out your throwing arm?
Has anyone else been to the New York Hall of Science? What were your favorite exhibits?