A field trip to remember

I had not been to the science center since I was in middle school. Since then they had built a new one and it's quite impressive. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the enormous building from the outside when we got there.

It's on the river and has large windows all over making the view spectacular when it's sunny.

The whole experience was a blast. No pun intended really. The kids had so much fun and I think their parents had just as much fun. Here the kids are laying in a shuttle. We came here twice they loved laying in it so much.

Els was trying to hang on for dear life here I think.

Here they were getting a peak at what a local volcano looked like before and after it erupted almost 30 years ago. Eek! I remember that and saying almost 30 years ago dates me a bit. Els is reenacting the eruption in the background.

It's hard to tell in this picture but as part of the teacher open house day we got to go down to the river and go inside a real life submarine for a tour. It was tight quarters!!! Our favorite part of the tour was getting to look at the night skyline of the city through the periscope on board.

Boat races with rubber bands and propellers was a highlight of the day.

This was just bizarre. Here we were learning about light. Steve was on one side and Els and Lij were on the other. When they turned on the light it looked like they were sitting together on the same side. I am so glad it showed up in the picture.

All in all we spent over 4 hours there watching an Omnimax show, playing with all of the exhibits, seeing many creations that DaVinci invented, going on the sub tour, perusing the store and just plain learning while having fun. There is that famous crockpot keeping things warm in the van just as we got to our destination. (For clarification purposes we did all of the cooking at home and the adapter is just powerful enough to run the warm setting. Also, I just used half of the quart of salsa in the fajitas.)

We were having so much fun that we didn't want to leave the building so we bought a tub of popcorn to share to ward off hunger. We then had dinner just as we left for the two hour trip home. Everyone was ready to have something warm to eat when we got ready to leave at 8:00pm. We all ate, the younger ones fell asleep while the rest of us listened to Jonathan Park Adventures on the way home. Perfection.