I’ve had a lot of awesome geeky nights – which I won’t get into here – but a couple weeks ago I got stalked by a Wookiee.

I don’t know why that wasn’t on my bucket list.

Except I never thought it would happen.

I was fortunate enough to go to the midnight opening party for the Star Wars®: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit at the Indiana State Museum.

That meant being in the belly of the beast with fellow geeks, and a lot of them.

While there I got to have fun testing out some of the science stations.  While building a moisture farm on Tatooine it began. While minding my own business, filming a video of what I was failing at, something touched my head. A drape of long fur covered my eyes.

Yes, I actually shrieked.  But when I looked up and saw Tarrful above me, I laughed and got a bit giddy.  Three more times the Wookiee found me and scared me, until I managed to get a hug with him (and then another with Chewbacca, because, of course).

While I can’t guarantee you’ll get stalked by a Wookie (or Darth Vader as my friend Heather was) – the exhibit itself is something to behold.  There are three science stations where you can learn to build a droid (or learn that you suck at building droids like I did ~ahem~).  You can build a mag-lev vehicle (out of legos!!).  You can build a spaceport or a moisture farm on tatooine (unless you ignore directions like I did). You can even ride a hovercraft!

In between all the fan-friendly science games are real props and models from the movies. Among my favorites?  Being able to look through the eyes of Vader:

Because seriously, how cool is that?

The exhibit is only $10 for museum members – or an additional $10 on top of your museum admission.  The tickets are timed, and they let in 64 people every 15 minutes.  You can stay as long as you like once in the exhibit, take all the pictures you want (I may have taken over 500-many of which I’m still editing) – just no flash.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that for another $5 you can go into the cockpit of the Milennium Falcon and take a ride through space (which is also awesome).

There is so much to see, that I’ve spent almost 3 hours combined in 2 visits and could spend another full day there without feeling like I’d seen everything.  Scattered throughout the next few weeks I’ll be giving you more posts that go more in depth o the offered fun at the exhibit, from the displays to the science fun.  I have to do it a little at a time – there is so much to offer!

For now I’ll leave you with a few pictures from the amazing exhibits…and the promise of many more pictures to come: