Leonardo da Vinci

Curt and I got to go to a pretty cool exhibit the other day called "Leonardo da Vinci 500 years into the future." They had an engineer day where we were able to get in for free, so we went. Otherwise we would have spent $25 dollars a ticket!! Yipes. There were two exhibit's really --one about the pre-Renassaince engineers that probably influenced him a little, and one just about him, his art, designs, machines etc. There were lots of machines built from his designs, and like they used back then. Curt thought it was pretty cool that all of the mechanisms we use today --like the gears, chains, bearings, etc. --originated from so long ago. Leonardo also designed the first Robot.
They had some exact replicas of Leonardo's notebooks, etc, that were pretty cool to see. They tried really hard to get an original, but they are too valuable. I guess Bill Gates bought ONE of them back in the 90's for 31 million dollars or something. Crazy!! Another cool thing was the replicas of the machines Brunelleschi used to build the dome on top of the Florence Cathedral. Anyway, I'm starting to ramble. The docent at the exhibit made us feel pretty special becuase this is the only place in the U.S. this exhibit was going to be shown, and it was the only time thus far that these two exhibits were shown together. I would have taken more pictures, but didn't think that you could! I guest most museum places let you as long as you don't use the flash. Now you know. There's lot more I could tell you, but I'm starting to bore myself!