My wife and I returned to Macon this past weekend and visited the Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences. Although I consider myself to be quite cultured, I preferred the Science area much more than the Arts area. We visited the planetarium, the nature trail, and walked through (and watched) the exhibit called Beakman's World.
Although this was geared mostly for children, all ages had fun in the different parts of this exhibit. We were invited to explore the universe in Space Travelers, journey to the rainforest in Jungle Journey, check out the human body in Body Invasion, track down dinosaurs in Prehistoric Passage and discover the laws of motion, acceleration and gravity in Beakman's Home Place. This exhibit used a hands-on technique for us to explore different ideas that were being explained.
The museum also had the Nike (Winged Victory) on loan to show their visitors. We were able to look at this ancient sculpture (carved about 200 B.C. in Samothrace, Greece) and marvel at the craftsmanship that was used to make this figurine.
As we prepared to leave the museum, my wife asked me to stop in the museum gift shop and look around. This time I was lucky. We left without spending more than $100 (as we usually do at these places). This was an thrilling trip for us. It is much nicer than one would expect in "backwards Macon". This was a first-class museum of science.