Pacific Science Center

(Yet another post with way too many pictures.)

For Memorial Day we went up to Seattle and went to the Pacific Science Center. It's in the Seattle Center, which we've been to before, but we'd never gone to the Science Center. In fact, the last time we were at the Seattle Center was also on Memorial Day weekend. It didn't occur to me that the Folklife Festival would be going on again. It was pretty crowded.

We drove up and parked below Pike Place Market, then walked up to Westlake Center and took the monorail from there.



We got lunch at the Westlake Center food court. I had soup and salad, and Doug went Indian.



Kate shares Dad's lassi.



The Westlake Center is quite the cosmopolitan spot--vast throngs of people from all over the world pass through there every day, speaking many different languages, and, presumably, spending money. Yet the only bathrooms in the whole place are up on the fourth floor, way in the back corner behind the food court. It's like a study in mixed messages. ("Yes! We want your business! But please, don't stay too long!")



Andy came along in his carseat, strapped to the stroller (we recently realized we can do this, even though they aren't a matched set). He seems to enjoy going places with his family.



The entrance to the monorail. I'd ridden it once when I visited Seattle with my roommate Christy. I don't think Doug had ever been on it before.



The view from inside, with the other train coming the other way.



Kate on the monorail.



The track goes right through the middle of the Experience Music Project (which Doug calls a "techno sneeze")



Going into the Science Center.

The first section was all dinosaurs, which Kate thought was very cool, of course.





Working a robot dinosaur.



This charming fellow was outside the insect exhibit. (Doug says, "Say 'apocalypse,' Raymond!" Ten points to anyone who gets that.)

We put Andy into the Snugli carrier, put the 100mm macro lens on the camera, and went into the butterfly house.



Lots of butterflies, and gorgeous tropical flowers!





(and a few goldfish!)



I did have a cooler onesie along for Andy. I should have changed him into it before we went into the butterfly house. It was really warm in there.





I wanted to get a picture of a Blue Morpho butterfly. They have such a brilliant, iridescent blue on their wings. I knew I was never going to get a shot of one in flight, though, and when they land they tend to keep their wings closed.



This one landed on Kate's back while she was leaning on a wall looking into a pond. I focused on it and waited for it to fly away.



I almost missed the butterfly, but I got a cool shot of its shadow!



I did finally get a picture of this one, which was fanning its wings while it was eating.







After the butterfly house, Doug and Kate went over to the kids' area while I took care of Andy.




Cool water toys!




A robot that plays tic-tac-toe.



Playing in the gift shop.




These are giant microbes. The tentacled one is e-coli. The spotted ones are, of course, Mad Cow.

Kate had a meltdown in the bathroom ("Noooooooo! I want to go potty at hooooooome!"). Once we were past that, we stopped by the Grossology exhibit, which deals with all kinds of bodily effluvia.



Andy, feeling inspired, spit up on me.



None of the displays really caught Kate's attention, but she thought this slide was pretty cool.



When we were done with the Science Center, we went over to the Fun Forest and went on a few rides. Kate picked the roller coaster, which was a lot like the one she went on at the fair.



She doesn't look very comfortable, but she had a good time, and rode it twice.



Of course she couldn't pass up a ride on a dragon!

It was time to head home, so we got on the monorail again, and then had a few blocks to walk to where we had parked.



Kate saw these pigeons and wanted to go bark at them.



Getting a shoulder ride from Dad. (She's holding her dinosaur Wacky, that she wanted to bring along.)



You can walk between the sheets of water in this fountain without getting (very) wet.



Looking tired!



We stopped at a gelato place right outside Pike Place Market and got a treat. It was nice to sit down for a while.




Andy was in full charmer mode and was flirting with everyone who walked by.

Long day! We're planning a trip to King's Island (amusement park) when we go to Ohio, so this was a good trial run. I think Andy did better than Kate did.

bus, zoo, train!

(Also known as "the post with way too many pictures.")

First, an update on Doug's dad. He is doing a little better. He'll be in the hospital for a while, but he's improving. Thank you for your prayers and all your kind comments.

On Friday we made an excursion up to Seattle. We'd talked about taking Kate for a ride on the Sounder commuter train, and I wanted to go to the Woodland Park Zoo. We didn't get either of these things done during the summer, when Doug had tons of free time. But on Fridays he only has classes in the morning, so we decided to do it then.

The Sounder only runs at commuter times (i.e. really early in the morning) so we took the bus up. Here are Doug and Kate at the bus station:





Kate on the bus. Once we got into Seattle she kept saying, "It's the city!"

We changed buses downtown and caught the one going out to the zoo.



By the time we got to the zoo it was 1:00, and they close at 4:00 this time of year, so we didn't have a whole lot of time there. It's a very spread-out zoo with lots of walking. I'd been there once before, years ago, with my roommate Christy, but I didn't recognize very much.



The first thing we came to was the "Zoomazium" indoor play area, so of course we had to go in. (They have these cute kid-size doors next to the regular doors.) Kate was pretty excited. There were fake rocks to climb on, a slide, and a great big (also fake) tree in the corner, that kids can climb up inside. We had a hard time getting her out of there.




When we successfully extracted our child from the Zoomazium and got out onto the zoo grounds, we found other things to play with.





Grates must be stomped on.



There were lots of squirrels around. I took a few pictures of them, too.



"Let's go this way!"



We made it over to the African savanna area and saw the giraffes (and some cute Korean kids who ran up and pointed, yelling "기린!"). There were some zebras, too, but we couldn't see them as well.



Kate checks out the giraffes.



Hippo! (There were three, and we got to hear them bellowing at each other. That was kind of cool.)



Open wide!

Leaving the savanna area, we passed a couple more groups of people speaking Korean. I said to Doug, "와, 한국사람이 되게 많다." ("Wow, there are a lot of Korean people.") Every once in a while I get the nerve to strike up a conversation with somebody, but it's hard to think of what to say.



Kate in the gift shop. We got her a rubber alligator that kept her entertained on the way home.

I was pretty hungry by then, so we got some lunch, and then it was 3:00 and we only had an hour left. Kate wanted to go back to the Zoomazium, so Doug took her over there and I went to look at some more animals by myself.



Ocelot (beautiful animal!)






Another squirrel. This one was really checking me out. Too bad I didn't have anything to give him.




Komodo dragon



A fennec! (I've liked these ever since I read Eleanor Hoffmann's Mischief in Fez as a child.)

We left the zoo at closing time and took two buses to the train station.




The view from the bus.



We barely missed one train and had to wait for the next one, so we just hung out on the platform and played around with the camera.






Kate took this one. :)



Yes, my daughter likes rubber reptiles.




On the train! We sat up on the top level.




There really were other people on the train. A lot of them got off before Tacoma.



The view out the window.



The train after we got off.



Tacoma at night.

Long day! I did okay with all the walking around, but my ankles were really sore the next day. Maybe it's the extra weight. Or it's my shoes.