I love museums. Well, most museums.  You know the ones I’m talking about -- the ones that are inviting and immediately immerse you in their awesome exhibits and virtually transport you into each display or diorama.  And as a mom of two energetic elementary school-age critters, exploring really cool museums -- ala Night at the Smithsonian -- that slyly educate while totally entertaining my dynamic duo are true gems! 

Wonderfully and quite fortunately, Gainesville www.visitgainesville has an array of incredible historical, cultural and art museums such as the Florida Museum of History www.flmhn.org and the Harn Museum of Art www.harn.org  to name but a few (and many of them are free!).  But get this tidibit -- there is a strong recent rumble of a new museum joining our impressive line-up!  Gainesville’s giddy stir is about the Cade Museum of Innovation and Invention www.cademuseum.org , which if all goes according to plan, will break ground in downtown Gainesville’s to-be-revitalized Depot Park, in 2010 and open its doors about two years later.

 Even at the artist rendering stage,  it's quite evident that this museum, which  honors the achievements of many inventors as well as the memory of the charismatic Dr. Robert Cade, creator of the wildly successful Gatorade sports drink, promises to be an educational and imagination-embracing mecca for all ages.   Even the museum’s proposed physical structure – two distinct wings symbolizing the right and left hemispheres of the brain -- reinforces the spirit and intricate process of innovation.  How darned cool is that?!  You just gotta love it.

Gift yourself a virtual walk through their website www.cademuseum.org explore all the truly incredible and, to use an over-used term, “out of the box” plans and exhibits.  Talk about awesome.  Talk about immersion.  Talk about imagination and innovation!  Then you just have to be talking about the Cade Museum!  It is a museum to love.