At fifty, I had earned at least one trip whose itinerary was “look at things I think are cool.” For my birthday, Rachel and I planned a few days at COSI. Last June we went down for the Star Wars exhibit; this time the draw was The Science Behind Pixar.
We drove down on Monday afternoon. We stopped at a travel center along I-71, partly for the bathroom and partly so Rachel could check the pressed-penny machine.
The room at The Junto had the same view of downtown that we remembered from last summer.
I went to bed Monday night not thinking much of anything. While I slept, Rachel turned the room into a Bluey-themed birthday surprise.
Tuesday morning, before breakfast, I unwrapped a small mountain of presents. Most of them were Bluey-adjacent. My family knows my weaknesses.
After breakfast we walked across the river to COSI. New since our last visit: a Moon Tree, a sweetgum sapling grown from seeds that flew on Artemis I, planted on the lawn last May.
The Pixar exhibit opens with a five-minute theater piece narrated by Mr. Ray (Finding Nemo) and Roz (Monsters, Inc.), with cameos from Russell and Carl on the seat-courtesy slide. Roz closes by reminding everyone that she’ll miss each and every one of us.
Inside, the exhibit is built around life-sized character figures (Buzz Lightyear, Sulley and Mike, Wall-E), each anchoring a station that explains a piece of how a Pixar film actually gets made.
The hands-on stations were the best part. Wrap fabric around a Wall-E shape to see how Surfaces work. Light a Ratatouille kitchen and balance image quality against render time. There is, somewhere, a kid who will become a TD because they pushed those sliders.
The pipeline panels themselves (Story and Art, Modeling, Rigging, Surfaces, Sets and Cameras, Animation, Simulation, Lighting, Rendering) are the closest I’ve seen to an honest explanation of how a Pixar film comes together. Each step builds on the previous one and feeds into the next.
The simulation and lighting sections were my favorites. Merida’s hair gets its own model: every curl is a spring. The Lighting Challenge had a Dory sculpture lit four different ways to show what light alone can do to a scene.
Naturally, the exit was a gift shop. We resisted, mostly.
In the atrium they had a set of butterfly sculptures made from recycled materials: piano keys, license plates, bottle caps, telephone insulators. I would not have guessed at the source materials without the labels.
We also walked through Mythic Creatures, a temporary exhibit of dragons, unicorns, krakens, and a chupacabra.
After a few hours we walked back outside to look at the building, the bridge, and the river. COSI lives in the old Central High School building, which has a much prettier facade than I had remembered.
We also did the green-screen souvenir photo on the way out. The result is exactly the level of cheesy you’d want from a museum gift shop.
Wednesday morning we packed up and headed home. The detour we wanted was Grandpa’s Cheesebarn in Ashland: a converted barn that’s part cheese shop, part chocolate shop, part roadside attraction, complete with a 1950 Chevy pickup out front and a giant mouse named Colby.
Inside, the place is wall-to-wall samples and themed displays. Cheeses, jams, jerky, chocolate-covered everything, and toddler onesies that read “I Cut the Cheese at Grandpa’s Cheesebarn.” We left with a paper bag heavier than I expected.
Rachel made friends with Colby.
We made one more travel-center stop on the way home. The penny machine on this side of the Turnpike was out of service, which Rachel noted with appropriate disappointment. The wall did, however, have a small Ohio Turnpike history exhibit, which made up for it a bit.
Pulling into the driveway, I found Rachel’s next surprise: the giant “HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY” yard sign at the top of this post, plus another sign with my name. School had just let out, so a half-dozen neighbor kids yelled it at me as we unloaded the car. The Cheesebarn haul ended up arrayed on the stovetop like a tiny grocery store.
A final surprise: Rachel had quietly ordered an assortment from a local butcher, picked it up, and dropped it next door, where the neighbors had agreed to cook everything for me. I can’t think of a better way to start fifty.