When you first arrive at the Bakken Museum you might just think you’re at the wrong place. It’s a gorgeous 1920s mansion, one of those buildings you look at and immediately think “it’s gotta be haunted, right?” Am I the only one that assumes all swanky old homes are haunted?
Anyway, it’s definitely not a boring museum. It’s actually a really great modern and interactive museum that’s fun for the whole family. Even before you step into the exhibit you’ll have a shocking experience in the lobby. Literally. There was a hand crank that shocked you, AJ lasted a few seconds, I lasted the smallest fraction of a second before jumping away and Aliceana just sat there cranking it without much reaction. There’s a lot of shocking experiences like this at the Bakken.
I really enjoyed this museum it had the perfect mix of historical items and information to view, and fun interactive experiments. We loved trying Mindball, a game that moves a ball depending on your brain waves, the more relaxed you are the more the ball moves in your opponent’s direction. Aliceana won every single time.
On our visit the Frankenstein exhibit was under construction and we weren’t able to view it, bummer.
We still had a lot of fun playing with Benjamin Franklin’s electricity party. The experiments there were a little difficult to pull off, and one surprisingly shocked AJ to the point where he jumped and threw the bottle that was in his hand, I think he was surprised. I just wish I had captured the moment on video, it was hilarious, definitely one of the highlights of our entire trip to the twin cities.
They have a room where you can do some other hands on science experiments, and if the weather is nice you can stroll around the pretty courtyard.
It was such a fun experience, I definitely recommend it if you’re in Minneapolis.
Written by, Brittany, the geek behind the blog. Sharing tips and stories from the trenches on navigating life homeschooling and homesteading as a stay at home mom.