BANGOR, Maine -- At the top of the hour, the frog on the clock croaks on Main Street. Lunch finds a real Australian dragon snapping live worms from tiny palms. Any hour the museum is open, it's time to crawl through an intestine or play ping-pong basketball.
The former Freese Department Store, founded in 1892 and closed in 1985, is now the Maine Discovery Museum, which bills itself as the largest children's museum north of Boston.
Opened in 2001, the three-story exploration center is clean, colorful, playful, and informative. Hands-on is the mantra whether it be a computer game or pedaling a heart pump. Seven interactive exhibits take children and parents on a trip through nature, books, travel, art, sounds, space, and the body. It's not every day that you can pilot a robotic arm.
The Natural Trails theme has an indoor tree house, a beaver lodge, and a simulated river is a place to pump water and play with boats. Maine native and neighbor Stephen King's presence is felt on the carpeted infield (he's a heartbroken Red Sox fan) of the storytelling room aptly named Head Down Baseball Diamond and adorned with photos of Maine athletes.
Walk briskly upstairs near the flying pigs to Book Town where characters and themes from children's books by Maine authors like Robert McCloskey and E.B. White come alive. Read a book, perform a puppet show, make a movie, or listen to an audio tape.
Mapaholics will find plenty in the Passport room. Travel to a marketplace in Ghana, scale Ayers Rock in Australia, or sit in on a Peruvian classroom.
For those looking to eat, brown baggers are welcomed in the snack room, next to the two birthday rooms. Groups can spend the night sleeping in the great indoors.
Invisible science reigns in the third-floor Mission Discovery Room. Spin yourself silly to simulate zero gravity or make your own constellation in the eerie glow of blacklight.
Get inside your child's head (at least try) at Body Discover. Brush giant teeth, make a face with clay on a skull, or look through the eye periscope.
Artscape is a place to create a giant spirograph on the giant harmonograph.
Sound Abound spans time. MTV and karaoke combine for a recording studio experience that can be taken home. Where else in Maine could you hear "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in rap, classical, and jazzy styles?
MARTY BASCH
Maine Discovery Museum
74 Main St., Bangor, Maine
207-262-7200
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 to 5 p.m. Closed Mondays except during school holidays. Admission: $5.50; group rates available.
Country Trading Post
and Restaurant
771 Burnett Road, Chicopee
413-592-1641
Hours: Weekdays, 5 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 6 to 1.
Breakfast, $3.50-$9, lunch $4-$9.
