Tallahassee Challenger Learning Center

By 3:00 PM the adults are dragging. The kids are still going strong, but we can see signs of tiredness. Our next tour is the Challenger Learning Center, one of my favorites from my last visit. We are directed into the IMAX theater where we sit and watch Walking on the Moon produced by Tom Hanks. I can't talk much about this movie as I fell asleep about 3 minutes into it.

"Mom," Darcy said at the end. "I had to go to the bathroom really bad during the movie and I came to get you to take me, but you were like this...." She threw her head back, closed her eyes, and opened her mouth. "I had to get another mother to take me."

I go to thank the other mother and she laughs. "On the way back up the stairs after taking Darcy to the bathroom, I wish I had had my camera because 90% of the adults and 20% of the kids were asleep."

From the IMAX theater, feeling much more refreshed, we move into the Learning Center classroom where the children are divided into two groups and given a lesson. One group is then taken upstairs to the orbiting space station modeled after the International Space Station and the other group is taken to the Mission Control room designed after NASA Johnson Space Center. Darcy is in the Mission Control room and her job is one of the probes. She puts on her headset and begins communicating with her counterpart in the space station.

Some of the adults head outside for coffee, some choose to sit in the lobby and check phone messages, and a few of us sit with the kids in Mission Control. Only two adults get into the Space Station. The last visit the parents worked in Mission Control, but this year we have twice as many kids so the adults don't really have jobs. I help the director as he answers questions and helps with the jobs. On a screen above us, we can see into the space station at the other group. Over a loudspeaker, we can hear when the two communicators speak from station to control room.

After about 45 minutes the two groups switch rooms. I jump up and become one of the adults that head into the space station. We climb two levels where we enter a compression chamber and then enter the station. Each child goes right to work as we take off into space. I help the Med Team as they check the vitals of the astronauts. We work for about 5 minutes when an alarm sounds and we are told that our oxygen level has been compromised. We are immediately ushered into the Clean Room where Darcy and her team member are working on the probe.

We all squeeze into the room and close the glass door, leaving behind one member who is responsible for saving our lives. The other adult and I are wheezing and gasping for air. I notice that Darcy is terrified and several other kids are unsure. I stop horsing around and assure them this is pretend. The other adult begins clawing on the glass. I join him. Luckily, we are saved and the door opens and we report back to our positions.

Five minutes later we are taking cover as we are hit by a comet. After that incident, we are busily back to work. Darcy and her teammate are working in the clean room when they are given a command to turn something. They do this and a pop sounds and we are told that a fire has broken out in the Clean Room.

The two girls immediately try to open the door and the director shouts at them to stop. The other adult shouts, "You will burn us all!" The girls are told to listen to Mission Control on how to put out the fire to save us all. They are scared to death, but hang tough and save us all. When the door is opened both of them rush out and we can not get them to return to their positions. They have had enough. Pretend or not.

The tasks are finally completed and we return to earth. Without being told the adults all head into the gift shop.