Science Museum of Virginia is located in the old Train Station in Richmond. The entrance of the building is really impressive: The dome is nearly three stories high and with exquisite carvings. The characteristic of the old train station is preserved by keeping the signs for Cigars, Trains etc. When we visited there was a construction to add a new section to the back of the museum.
Before we entered the museum we ran into two big granite orbs or "kugels" (ball in German) representing the moon and the earth at a scale of approximately 1 foot to 1,000 miles. The pressure of the water was able to lift and swirl the massive pieces of granite.
We got tickets for only the exhibits, and it included a planetarium show in the IMAX-Dome theatre. The IMAX theatre was unlike any I have seen before. It was a big dome and the picture was reflected on this dome. First section of the show involved showing pictures taken by the Hobble telescope. The second section focused on the summer sky in Richmond. After the planetarium show we visited the Crystal World and Computers exhibits. These exhibits were quite boring for me. The exhibit pieces were old, and some of them even missed pieces. I was so relieved when my husband agreed to leave this section.
We wanted to see the train exhibits when I ran into the sign that shows the direction to the "Sherlock Holmes and Clocktower Mystery." Being a fan of Sherlock Holmes I persuaded my husband to follow me to the track level. My husband half-heartedly followed me as he thought it was going to be pretty boring. What a surprise! We ended up spending more than an hour going from one Chapter to another, reading info, observing the set and listening to the taped conversations. When we arrived at the last chapter we still did not know who the killer was and why he killed. We went back reread, and I even checked out the Cheat Boxes. The last part was an enclosed room where an appointed time was posted on the door for consultation. "A live character" greeted us in Sherlock Holmes' Baker Street office and asked if any of us knew who the killer was. Finally, the truth was out. (No clue for you).
After the mystery exhibit we visited several other exhibits, Bioscape, Bio Lab, in the building, and even sat in a lecture and observed a dissection of a cow's eye. However, we must be too old, and the museum not up to our taste, we decided to leave the museum. We were lucky as we left the museum the Pendulum hit another piece. Maybe with the new addition and new exhibits this museum may improve, but till then don't go there expecting an exciting day out in the science museum.