Longer Day Trips: IMAG Museum in Fort Myers

All of Today's pictures except Rebecca in the VR headset were provided by Vanessa.

For our final co-op field trip for the year, we ended up dividing and conquering IMAG in Fort Myers. The day before our big field trip several people had come down sick or weren't going to be able to make it; however I knew one family had already gone down and had a hotel for the night due to distance and wanted to go to a few other places to make the trip more of a bang for their buck. So I decided to meet that family in Fort Myers and the rest I rescheduled for about a month out. The staff at the IMAG Museum of Fort Myers was phenomenal to work with. We had initially planned an overnight trip to the museum, but had to change plans as money ended up becoming tight for several families around time to pay for the trip. Through all of our changes they were completely understanding and easy to work with.

We drove down and got there on a nice spring morning. We started in the historical section where they had many models of homes and information about how Fort Myers came into existence. In this area they had virtual reality headsets with a presentation about the history of the area, that you could interact with. That was incredibly interesting as none of mine (or me for that matter) had ever tried one before. After that we wandered over to the physics section where you could test out different principles over various tracks with sets of pool balls. There was also a paper airplane station nearby with different types of planes you could fold. In the same area there was also a foam block set up where the twins spent a good deal of time arranging and playing with them. The only down part about this time was there was a school group who arrived at roughly the same time and were cycling through stations downstairs before heading outside for lunch. It was a bit overwhelming, and we'd probably have spent more time in certain areas, except we would shift when they did to make the best use of the space without other kids underfoot.

Eventually we made it up stairs and explored the weather station. The kids most enjoyed standing in front of the green screen and forecasting the weather and watching themselves with weather maps in the background on the television screen. We discussed some major Florida hurricanes while looking through the different weather displays. After that we traveled outside to eat our lunch and then to explore a bit of the outdoor part of the park. After lunch mine were drained, I suspect in part due to the large field trip group, and we headed on home, rather than explore the rest of the museum. However, everyone agreed that they really enjoyed it and would recommend the trip to others. They even have regular homeschool classes that they offer throughout the school year, so that would be neat to access if you lived near by.

I'm not sure if we'd visit again. We are rarely that far south these days, and there are so many things we'd like to see or do in the area. However, as stated above we are definitely happy we went. You really need a full day to be able to explore everything. If you too would like to visit, the address to IMAG in Fort Myers is 2000 Cranford Ave, Fort Myers, Florida. Regular priced tickets are $21 for adults $16 for kids from 3-17, and $20 for 65 and up. Though you can get a better rate as a field trip or group. They are open from 10 to 5 Monday through Saturday, except Tuesday when they are closed, and noon to 5 on Sunday. For more information you can always call 239-243-0043.