Day 161, Year 9: Trip to the Museum of Science in Boston
Date: Sunday, March 30, 2014
Weather: Overcast and Foggy with Rain–Overnight and All Day and Evening
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
The weather forecast was correct this time. The 100 per cent chance of rain today became a reality and it is still raining. So our decision to head to Boston to the Museum of Science was a good one. We pulled out of the drive-way at 11 am and didn’t return until 9 pm tonight. We spent the afternoon at the Museum and stayed until closing. We then drove to Harvard Square in Cambridge to have dinner at a favorite Vietnamese restaurant. After dinner we drove back through Boston to take Mark to the Hope House in Jamaica Plain and then home. It was a big day, but all three boys really enjoyed the Museum. Ollie was fascinated by the BIG T-Rex model and the colorful butterflies in the Butterfly Garden. And Sam and Jonah loved racing against a moving light in the Science in the Park area. The hands-on activities are their favorites and Sam especially enjoyed using a touch pad to navigate a small moon rover to find certain objects. It was not easy, but without help he quickly grasped the idea and mastered it. At the end of the day Jonah said his favorite thing was the lightening demonstration—which is quite a show. And Ollie just enjoyed it all. He got right in there and ran the races with Sam and Jonah and attempted to do everything they did all afternoon. At the end of the day, we spent a long time watching balls drop down through what is called the audiokinetic sculpture. It is a two-story plexiglass-encased maze with all sorts of moving mechanical parts that challenge the rise and fall of balls. The balls never go up and down the same way twice and some of their movements make different sounds. You could literally sit there and watch it all day. This sculpture is set against a glass wall that allows you to look out over the Charles River and Boston. As I sat there late this afternoon, I was so glad I was IN the Museum and not outside. The view was one of the dreariest views of Boston I have ever seen. All of the tall buildings were shrouded in fog and the rain was still coming down, with more to come.
I am spending the night at Heather’s tonight as she has to be out of here by 7:30 in the morning. That will leave Ollie, Jonah, and me to get Sam to school and then we’ll head to the public library for Monday morning story time. Jonah, Ollie, and I will be spending the day together, so I’d better stop writing and get to bed so that I’ll have enough energy to keep up with them.
