Our Five Ring Circus: Destination Moon: Family Fun at the Heinz History Center + GIVEAWAY

Friday, October 19, 2018

Destination Moon: Family Fun at the Heinz History Center + GIVEAWAY

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission at the Heinz History Center

This post is brought to you by the Senator John Heinz History Center and The Motherhood. All opinions are my own. 

Over the weekend, my family headed into Pittsburgh to visit the Heinz History Center. We couldn't wait to explore Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission! The Heinz History Center is one of four museums to host the Smithsonian's breathtaking traveling exhibit, which will be on display until February 18, 2019. This exhibit is a must see!


This was our first visit to the Heinz History Center, and I'm so glad we finally got the chance to go! I didn't realize how family-friendly it is. There were plenty of fun, interactive exhibits for my four kids, including the Destination Moon exhibit. We had a lot of fun, and we learned so much along the way!

The main exhibit we wanted to visit was Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission. This traveling exhibit was developed with the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibitions Service. The exhibit focuses on NASA's Apollo 11 Mission, when Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. The national tour of Destination Moon is to commemorate the Apollo 11 mission's 50th anniversary, which will be on July 20, 2019. 


Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission

My kids were excited as soon as they saw the fun launchpad entrance, which takes you into the exhibit! We followed the giant moon footsteps up the ramp, and became fully immersed in the historical NASA Apollo 11 Mission!

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission

The must-see exhibit includes over 100 artifacts, but the highlight of the exhibit is the Command Module Columbia! It was the living quarters for the Apollo 11 crew. After the mission was complete, it returned Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins back to Earth. This is the first time in nearly 50 years that Command Module Columbia has left the Smithsonian! I have to admit, I was shocked by how tiny the Command Module Columbia actually was. It didn't even seem big enough for one person, so I couldn't possibly imagine three people sharing the space!

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission

Here are a few other features that you won't want to miss:


Buzz Aldrin's helmet and gloves, complete with a "cheat sheet" written on the side of the glove.

Buzz Aldrin

An actual moon rock!

Moon Rock

The Columbia Hatch, which was the entry and exit to the spacecraft on the launch pad and after landing. 

Columbia Hatch

Columbia Hatch

Audio from Mission Control, which will give you goosebumps!

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A medical kit and survival kit.

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission

The Pittsburgh connections, which includes the prototype camera made by Westinghouse, that captured video in space which appeared on millions of TV sets on Earth!

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission

My husband, older kids, and I really enjoyed exploring this huge piece of our nation's history, but the highlight for all of my kids was the life-size replica of a command module that they can climb into, and the area where they could become an astronaut and pick up "moon rocks" while wearing those giant gloves!

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission

Although Destination Moon was the main exhibit we wanted to see, we did explore the rest of the Heinz History Center! We were big fans of the Destination Moon exhibit, but we quickly found out that the Heinz History Center is perfect for the entire family. 


Here are some can't-miss exhibits:

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

If you were born in the 80's like me, you most likely grew up watching Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and adored the beloved Mister Rogers! This exhibit was a favorite for me and my husband, mostly for sentimental reasons. The exhibit has the largest collection of original items from the show. It was so awesome to see King Friday's castle, The Great Oak Tree, the entryway and living room that Mister Rogers walked through at the start of every show, and the puppets!

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

Heinz History Center

The Heinz Exhibit

There's no other ketchup but Heinz! Am I right?!? The Heinz exhibit has the largest collection of Heinz artifacts in the world...obviously! My kids loved the interactive dinner table, with images that appeared on the table while they played, and the 11 foot ketchup bottle made of over 400 individual bottles!

Heinz History Center

Eyes of Pittsburgh

The pictures from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette from over the past 100 years really appealed to this photographer! I can't wait to go back on my own so I can take my time to explore it more!

The Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum

My husband and oldest son were huge fans of this exhibit, and I know they wanted to spend more time exploring.  If you are a fan of Pittsburgh teams, this exhibit is for you, but it also has so much more from every imaginable sport! My kids really enjoyed the small golf area, throwing the footballs at the Targer, and the coloring table where they could design their team jersey!

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Discovery Place

This was obviously the favorite area for my little kids! It's an interactive learning space just for kids. After watching all four of our kids play with the giant foam blocks in the Engineering Playground, we decided we should just get rid of all the toys in the basement and get a set of those! 

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From Slavery to Freedom

This exhibit is intense, but I believe it's a must see for kids. It features more than 250 years of African American History. I was in tears for much of the exhibit. Slavery is a hard concept for our children to understand. Textbooks aren't enough, so I was glad my older kids got to see this.

The Trolley

The main floor of the Heinz History Center features an actual trolley, which is a big piece of Pittsburgh history. I honestly had no idea that the trolleys were so large! Both of my parents rode the trolleys in Pittsburgh, so it was really neat to be able to sit on one!

Fun Things To Do in Pittsburgh with Kids

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Kidsburgh

My younger kids loved this two level play area, which features an interactive Isaly's ice cream shop, a cow to milk, and a spiral slide called the Liberty Tube. It was our last stop in the museum, and it was hard to pull them away!

Pittsburgh Kids

My family had so much fun exploring the Heinz History Center for the first time! Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission exhibit was the highlight of our visit, but we definitely can't wait to go back again!

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GIVEAWAY!

GIVEAWAY CLOSED! The winner, by random.org, is Steph. Congratulations!

There are two free tickets to the Heinz History Center up for grabs for one of my readers! To enter, simply leave a comment telling me what part of the Destination Moon exhibit you are most excited to see! 

*Giveaway will end on Wednesday, October 31st, at 11:59 PM. Winner will be chosen randomly and notified the following day.

Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission at the Heinz History Center + GIVEAWAY! #Pittsburgh #DestinationMoon #HeinzHistoryCenter {sponsored}

10 comments:

  1. That was fasincating! I would LOVE to see the space exhibit and I think A and C would be transfixed. You know when you said the audio gave you the goosepimples? Well I was getting that just seeing the parts of the rocket. It makes you realise what that thing went through - it looks so battered! There is a new film about the moon landing coming out, I've forgotten what it is called but I've love to see it. Ok I though the guy holding the trophy above your heads was real - how lifelike is that waxwork?? Brill post and makes me really want to take the family to DC. Isn't there a spying museum as well? I am sure I saw that last time I was in DC.

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  2. I cant wait to see it all! We have a future date day planned to go see the exhibit

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  3. We cant wait to go see this exhibit. Seeing the command module will be so cool

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  4. My space loving Lily would LOVE to visit Destination Moon!! 🚀

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  5. Destination Moon looks really cool, I hope the exhibit comes here! And the rest of the museum looks like a lot of fun too.

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  6. How fun. I like that it has so many different exhibits and things to enjoy. I think I'd really like Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

    -Lauren
    www.shootingstarsmag.net

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  7. What a cool place. I know my two space-lovers, Lew and Little Lewie, would love to see Destination Moon. Maybe it will come up this way... The other exhibits sound amazing, too. I would love to see the artifacts from Mr. Roger's Neighborhood--such memories!

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  8. All of it. I remember watching the moon landing when I was a little girl

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  9. Everything that has to do with space we love tooling at all the different space things would love to visit

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