The MOSI in Tampa
Have you ever wanted to ride a bicycle across a high wire, thirty feet above the ground? How about experience the gale forces of a hurricane? You do both of these things without fear of losing your life at Tampa, Florida’s Museum of Science & Industry. Known as MOSI, it’s a not-for-profit, educational resource for the community. Inside its 300,000 square-foot confines, you’ll discover something for every member of the family, including Florida’s IMAX Dome Theatre. In the museum, there’s over 450 exhibits that you can touch, hands-on, including a 12,000 square foot exhibition known as The Amazing You, which explores health and well-being in the various stages of life development: beginning of life, childhood, and adolescence. The MOSI also contains the only plantation in Tampa — the Saunders Planetarium. If you’re in Tampa, then for entertainment and education, MOSI should be number one of your list. Take a look:
The High Wire Bicycle exhibit allows guests to ride a bicycle that’s placed on a steel cable, one inch in length, thirty feet above ground. The exhibit has the distinction of being the longest high wire bike in a U.S. museum; I’m certainly hard pressed to name any others. The guest is harnessed onto the bike; There’s a safety net beneath the bike, but apparently, because the bike is counter-weighted, it’s impossible for the bike to fall. You’re perfectly safe, thanks to physics. The museum also allows you to experience what 74 miles per hour hurricane winds are like, in an exhibit that encourages you to Get Smart, Get Ready for storms.
The MOSI also one of a few museums on the Earth to have on display one of the biggest articulated dinosaur ever discovered. The Sauropod weighed in at forty tons, despite small brains. These herbivores ate food from the tallest trees, which they reached with their long, long neck — necks that allowed them to stretch five stories tall. The sauropods in the museum lobby have a height of three stories, and a length, combined, of about one hundred and fifty feet.
After a day of hurricanes, high wire bicycle riding, and encounters with Sauropods, you’ll want to check into one of Tampa’s hotels, basking in luxury and resting from a long, but rewarding day.
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