Want to feel normal?
Go to the “The Science of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” exhibit at Pacific Science Center.
Shrunken heads, the world’s tallest man and an Albert Einstein mural made from toast are among Robert Ripley’s compendium of oddities, anomalies and fantastic feats.
So, yeah, in comparison, you’ll be blissfully ordinary.
However, you’ll be an extraordinaire busting moves on a dance floor that flashes spiraling silhouettes on a big screen. It makes you look like you can dance, even if you have two left feet.
The exhibit itself, by the way, doesn’t have any being with two left feet. But there’s a chicken with four feet. And a two-headed calf.
Other items, big and small, include a python made of metal washers, a Rolls Royce constructed from a million matchsticks and micro-sculptures that fit on the eye of a needle.
“You’re seeing things you don’t normally see and it’s humorous as well as educational,” said visitor Suzanne Stevens, of Whidbey Island, who planned to bring her grandson next time.
Stevens got giddy as her dance moves were projected on the screen. “Normally I’d be more reserved,” she said.
Her favorite display was the mannequin of Robert Wadlow, who, at 8 feet, 11 inches tall, is considered the tallest man to walk the earth.
“He’s so lifelike,” Stevens said as the giant’s mechanical body slowly stood up and gazed down at her with penetrating eyes.
A measuring pole lets you compare your paltry height to this towering dude.
Kids can use the “How Tall Will You Be?” computer station to find out how tall they might be as an adult based on their current height. Doubtful many will get Wadlow’s stature, though it might be tempting to plug in fake numbers just to scare your parent.
Plan to spend an hour or more to oogle at the illusions, such as the Justin Bieber portrait made of hard candy. It almost makes The Bieb look sweet, if we didn’t know better.
All ages and persuasions will find things enticingly weird in the exhibit. As Stevens said, it’s a great place to bring grandkids. I brought my grandson Parker, 12, who was visiting from Phoenix.
“That Albert Einstein picture made out of toast, that was insane,” Parker said. “I was not expecting that at all. Or the shrunken heads, for that matter. It kind of creeped me out a bit. They were about the size of a fist.”
The museum’s Puget Sound Model and Saltwater Tide Pool was a believe-it-or-not experience for Parker, even though it was not part of the Ripley’s exhibit.
“I got to see a starfish eat. It took a while,” Parker said. “I’d seen them before but never up close like that. I definitely never got to see one eat. That was crazy cool.”
The hands-on/hands-in tide pool lets you touch living sea creatures in the model of the Sound. Parker’s Arizona-raised hands got numb in the chilly water, but he was right at home in the museum’s 80-degree tropical butterfly garden.
Another highlight was the Wellbody Academy, with a germnasium, slumbertorium and cafedium that probes our eating, sleeping and sneezing habits.
A new exhibit, “Memory: Past Meets Present,” explores how you remember, how you forget and the three-pound organ in your heads that makes this all possible.
Pacific Science Center is a destination in itself. We’d planned to Ride the Ducks but instead spent several hours in this wonderland of indoor and outdoor science.
I can’t remember when I had so much fun.
If you go
“The Science of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” is included in regular admission at Pacific Science Center, 200 Second Ave. N, Seattle. Tickets are $19.50, 16 and older; $17.50, 65 and older; $14.50, 6 to 15; $11.50, ages 3 to 5. Free for 2 and younger. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, call 800-664-8775. Tickets are also available to purchase at the box office or at www.pacificsciencecenter.org.
Got weird stuff?
Bring it on! Ripley’s Bizarre Buying Bazaar is coming to Pacific Science Center on Nov. 14 and 15. It’s a stop on a traveling road show to acquire items to be part of the world-famous Ripley’s Believe It or Not! collection. Ripley’s buyers are seeking oddities, artifacts, relics, strange things from science and nature, unusual artwork. The weirder the better. Offers will be made on the spot. Even if Ripley’s doesn’t want your strange stuff, you might still get an “oddpraisal,” which isn’t what an item is worth, but an idea of how unusual it is. Sellers get free admission to the Ripley’s exhibit.
Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @reporterbrown.
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