The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (aka OMSI) is not actually a museum, although it is in Oregon and there is lots of science and maybe a little bit of industry involved.

OMSI is relentlessly touted by the civic boosters of Portland as a great civic treasure. That is a little bit of an overstatement, what OMSI actually is, is an educational science center for elementary school children. For people who know Philadelphia, PA's Franklin Museum, it is very similiar to that. It actually comes across halfway between a theme park and a museum of natural history. It features exhibits like mockups of the space shuttle, 12 foot replicas of the human heart and dinosaur replicas. It was a pretty fun place to go on field trips when I was a kid, and it presumably still is.

After decades being next to the Washington Park Zoo, OMSI was moved to the eastside of the Willamette River, as the first move of the cities long planned plan to reinvigorate that part of the city.

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