So long, San Diego!

WINGING AWAY: We had to leave beautiful San Diego today. The kids were bummed to leave, and they weren't alone.

We got to the airport a little after noon and then had 2.5+ hours to kill. We managed to grind it out, and our airplane ride was uneventful with one shining exception. Somewhere over Oregon, the pilot came over the intercom and said, "For all you space fans and star gazers on the right side of the plane, look out the windows and see the light heading east? That's the International Space Station."


I was bummed we were on the wrong side of the plane to see it, but SO happy he made the announcement. It created a bit of a buzz on board and I'd love to think maybe a few sparks were lit this New Years Eve and some new space fans were created!

We're too tired to unpack tonight, so we'll hit it hard tomorrow, during all the bowl games. Maybe I'll even get caught up on the blog.

Happy Thursday

SUN DIEGO: I don't think the skate rental company was too happy with the woman when she checked her skates back in. The dork was walking around in the sand and yes, even the water, with them on. Geez.

Not a lot to report today. No museums, no amusement parks, just a low key day leading up to watching (on TV) a fireworks filled night with the Huskies in the Alamo Bowl. Crazy game. All that offense is fun, but I'm a fan of defense, too.

We did visit sprawling Mission Bay Park today. Gorgeous place with two playgrounds.

We hung out at both of them. In the "it's a small world" category, there was only one other family at the playground and when she saw the kids' Huskies' the woman said she used to live in Ballard - that's just 2 minutes north of us in Seattle.

Around midday, we were at the bungalow where we're staying and CJ stared up into the sky and said, "Goodyear." That could only mean one thing - the blimp!

When we returned to the beach this

afternoon, Annabelle was thrilled to find a castle and volcano she built a couple of days ago was still standing. Here she is, celebrating!

Back to Balboa

Annabelle really got the hang of riding on her boogie board on her belly today. She had big fun. CJ, not so much. His board took a chunk out of the top of his foot, so his outing was abbreviated.

G&G had a front row seat for all the action. 


SCIENCE CENTER SAN DIEGO STYLE: We decided to make a return trip to sprawling Balboa Park today. Though we were out there yesterday to check out the Air & Space Museum, today, our sights were set on the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center and the San Diego Natural History Museum.

As good fortune would have it, our Pacific Science Center membership in Seattle got us into BOTH of the places today, thanks to a reciprocity agreement. Sweet! It saved us a bundle. (And yesterday, our membership at the Museum of Flight in Seattle got us into the Air & Space Museum for free!)

The kids loved the San Diego Science Center. There were so, so many hands on activities. They built an arch, climbed through sculptures, and scaled a geometric mountain.  There was an entire room dedicated to building marble runs (something they have lots of experience in from their science class). 

 They loved building sculptures with shapes that looked like star bits in Super Mario Galaxy.

From the Science Museum it was on the the Natural History Museum. 

 

There, we saw all sorts of prehistoric creatures. 

We saw lots of skulls and other skeleton parts. It was great - many the displays allowed viewers to manipulate body parts. Here, Annabelle's checking out the mechanics of a ball joint.

There were several sea creature models on display, including a very large and scary shark hanging in the atrium. 

We were about ready to leave the Natural History Museum when Christian consulted a map and noticed there was a mineral and gemstone display on the lower level. Perfect! The kids have both been so interested in precious metals and pretty stones ever since they began playing Minecraft.

So down to the basement we went, and boy, were we glad we did! The display was STUNNING.

There was a lovely mix of stunning jewelry and eye popping, huge gems/rocks/stones. Above is an enormous (about the size of four human heads) stone embedded with opals. And then there was this jade specimen. It was bigger than the two kids put together!

And then there were things like this lovely butterfly made with many gorgeous garnets.

Carved out of turquoise, "Neptune's Daughters" was a jaw dropper, to be sure.

CJ was just SO thrilled by it all. Just a day before we left for San Diego, he was combing the Internet, looking for a periodic table featuring gemstones. Imagine his delight upon finding an oversize, interactive one today!

Air and Space

SPACECRAFT SAN DIEGO STYLE:  Certainly the Air and Space Museum in San Diego would have been on our "to do" list no matter what, but knowing there was a limited time only NASA exhibit there made us extra excited to check it out.

There were many hands on displays, including one where people could build their own spacecraft. CJ chose to build a colony on Mars and he had to make a nuclear machine and he chose not to take all the supplies but to manufacture or grow some on Mars. His choices were good and the computer deemed his mission a success.

There were so many wonderful artifacts to view, but I think I enjoyed the quotes we encountered almost as much.

CLASS REUNION: This morning, we had the great pleasure of meeting CJ & Annabelle's BFF from Seattle preschool at Balboa Park. Their buddy moved here 1.5 years ago and we thought we might never see him again, but happily our paths crossed. It was great. The three picked up right where they left off. It was so cute. I sure wish we didn't live so far apart. :(

Down South

 

HIT THE BEACH:  While many Americans spent Christmas morning unwrapping gifts and lounging around, by 6:15 we'd crammed ourselves (four adults and two kids) into a Honda CRV, headed for Seatac airport, next stop = San Diego. 

Mercifully, our flight was uneventful and we arrived in San Diego just before noon.

Here, Annabelle enjoys a snack outside of the Enterprise Rental Car offices. 

Not long after we got to the place we're staying in Mission Beach, we walked a couple hundred feet to our west to make sure there was, indeed, a beach.

 

The kids got a little practice with a boogie board. They didn't catch any big waves today, but had lots of fun nonetheless.

MONDAY MADNESS: Today's number one on the hit parade was going to Belmont Park - a small amusement park conveniently located about a mile south of where we're staying.  They rode the bumper cars over and over and over.

CJ was a roller coaster riding fool, while poor Bee was just an inch too short. :/ But she had fun on other rides, like this one featuring a fun vertical drop.

 

 And the one, above, which tilted, whirled and rotated up toward the clear blue sky.

Christmas Eve Eve

SCOOT: Since today wasn't freezing or raining, I felt it important that we get out into the fresh air. So, we spent well over an hour at the neighborhood park. The kids were both itching to ride their scooters, so we trudged up the hill with them.

When we got there, a brother and sister duo a couple years older than CeeJ and Bee were there. The four fell into playing immediately. I mostly tried to be invisible (not an easy task with Kirby in tow). It was a good hour plus of physical and social play.

WTH?:  While the kids were roping 'round the park, Kirby and I found dozens of daisies blooming. It's December. Winter. In Seattle. That is just not right.

EXPLOSIVE: We received a box from Nonnie and Bops chock full 'o Xmas goodies. We tucked the presents under our tree but couldn't help ourselves and set about setting off all of the explosives. We do love the smell of gunpowder!!!

Below, Bee models the streamers that came out of the party crackers.

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS: This morning, we watched Soyuz 30 dock with the International Space Station flawlessly. Suddenly, the ISS's population doubled - from 3 to 6. Meanwhile, back on Earth, another Soyuz rocket (carrying communications satellites) blasted off - and failed miserably, its pieces falling back to Earth. :/ Makes me extra thankful the Soyuz carrying the astronauts succeeded. And it makes me feel extra chagrined that we have no other way to get our astronauts to orbit other than our Russian comrades aboard Soyuz spacecraft. :/ 

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN: Tonight we watched with great interest NORAD's Santa countdown. Though Christmas Day is still a ways away by our clock, NORAD made it clear that St. Nick would be taking off just 50 minutes after the kids went to bed tonight. Sweet!

TWEET!: This morning as I was checking into Twitter, I saw a post from @GarlicJims offering a free pizza to the first five people who replied to a certain email address. I pounced on it (of course) and we got a free pizza. Sweet!

Jump for Joy

GREEN SEEN: In our travels, CJ spends a lot of time looking down. Because that's the case, he's often finding treasures on the ground other people miss (money, hair clips, rubber bands, jewelry, etc.) Yesterday, at the park, he found what he was sure was a baby four leaf clover.

PLAYTIME: We did math today (addition and subtraction story problems with numbers in the thousands), read some, and did some writing, but the kids' A#1 activity was attending their yoga friend's birthday party at KidzBounce. It was a bit of a haul getting there (six miles east of Issaquah), but it was worth it once we were there.

It's a nice facility, with a good mix of inflatables. The kids spent nearly two full hours jumping, climbing, bouncing and running.

BLOCKHEADS: We had fun taking the "Pixel Challenge" on Yahoo! Games' Brain Games. According to Dr. Pawan Sinha of MIT, 75 percent of his test subjects could recognize faces with only 12x14 pixels' worth of information. Interesting. Apparently humans' holistic approach to viewing is the key.

GEEK SPEAK: I played a NASA audio describing a special mission for the kids today and asked them who or what the NASA announcer was talking about. I had to play it twice before Bee finally got it.

TRACKING: We finally checked in with NORAD today. HQed in Colorado Springs, the bi-national U.S.-Canadian military organization is responsible for the aerospace and maritime defense of the United States and Canada. Important work, but I have to think they're most famous for being the preeminent Santa tracking agency.

The kids each played around in NORAD's Kids' Countdown Village, where they solved word puzzles, had virtual snowball fights, checked out Santa's sled specs and much more. Good times!

SANTA'S LITTLE DETOUR: Ever wonder how Santa makes it all his deliveries in one night? NASA and the Canadian Space Agency have your answer: Santa's Little Detour. 

After watching how fast the ISS streaked across the sky directly over our house at 5:21 this evening, I'm a believer!

Twister!

MORNING MOVIE: Yesterday evening I received an email from Pacific Science Theater announcing the grand re-opening of of a movie theater onsite. To celebrate the improvement, we were offered free tickets to a show today. Well you know us - free = yes please!

We showed up at 10:30 for the 10:45 movie. I knew where the old theater was and so that's where we reported. However, we had to walk over and around CAUTION tape to get there and we were The Only People in "line." The doors were shut and there were ZERO signs indicating anything about any movie whatsoever. It made me wonder if we were in the right place,  of course. So, I whipped out my cell phone and actually called guest services. Unfortunately, the man who fielded my call was rather rude. When I asked where the movie was showing, the smart a$$ said, "At Pacific Science Center." Well no $h*& Sherlock. I told him we were standing there, outside the old Eames Theater, freezing, and it was a ghost town with no signs or signs of life. He said we were in the right place. Super.

Fortunately, about five minutes after his "help" an usher came out and welcomed us, saying we were the very first people in the brand new theater.

We were SO happily surprised upon walking in. Last time we'd been there it was for a Lewis & Clark movie and the space, though functional, was hardly inviting. But the new and VASTLY improved PACCAR IMAX Theater is lovely. The sound and visuals were fantastic and the seats, with a mid century modern upholstery and wooden arms, were beautiful and comfortable.

Just moments after we sat down, the usher came over with free T-shirts for the kids for being early birds. Sweet!

The movie,  "Tornado Alley," was thrilling and super educational. I was happy with how much focus there was on the science of storm chasing.

When we got home, Bee promptly set about making her own tornado chasing vehicle out of LEGOs. She invested a fair amount of time on it, and had interesting things to say about her different design elements.

STATION TO STATION: After the movie, we made our way to the Center House. With blue skies overhead, we stopped along the way for a Space Needle photo opp. Can you find CeeJ and Bee mixed in with the mosaic/mural?

The draw in the Center House was the annual model train display. This year didn't disappoint.

DRAWING BOARD: Not surprisingly, we had our eyes on NASA goings on today. We watched a replay of the early morning launch of a Soyuz rocket carrying a Russian, an American (from Silverton, Ore.)  and a Ductchman, ISS bound. We checked out cool photos of the surface of asteroid Vesta compliments of . We checked out the parachute landing tests for the future Orion capsule.  

And last, but not least, the kids took a crack at drawing the Space Shuttle. A few of my space geek friends had posted a link to cartoonist Shoo Raynor's tutorial on the topic. I cautioned the kids going in that this was not going to be the typical Activitytv.tv cartooning lesson. This drawing was a lot more complicated and realistic. That said, the kids were troupers.

They watched and listened carefully and were pretty darn proud of their results. Here's CJ's rendition: 

 

and Annabelle's:

WE SEE THE LIGHT: Thanks to an automated Tweet from Twisst ISS alerts, we learned the International Space Station would be passing overhead at 4:42 p.m., rising from the southwest. We drove to the top of our hill and parked at Ella Bailey Park at 4:40 p.m. and started scanning the skies. It was dusk. We weren't there 30 seconds when a young girl started calling, "Hellooooo! Helloooo!" in our direction.

Turned out it was a friend of the kids'.

CJ called back her direction, "Hi! We'd love to play with you, but we're here to spot the International Space Station!"

Happily, that got their friend's attention. She came running over and together we scanned the skies. Problem was, just to the south of us was Seatac airport, so there were LOTS of points of light rising from our south. It got to be 4:44 and I feared we missed it when Annabelle cried out, "There it is!!!!"

Sure 'nuff, she was right. The ISS was blazing a slow, steady, bright path across the sky from southwest to northeast. It was a gloriously long flyover - several minutes. We watched it head over Magnolia, Interbay, Queen Anne, Fremont, and far, far beyond. It was great to be able to see it for ourselves, but the fact that we were at a park at the time meant everyone there overheard us and spotted it, as well.

It was neat to be able to share that the ISS has been in orbit longer than all the kids there at the park have been alive, and that just this morning, three astronauts lifted off from Russia, headed for the ISS.

How I love spreading the NASA news. :) It's amazing how much excitement a little squiggle of light can generate.

SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS:  If you haven't seen the movie mentioned just preceding (a frequent 'star' on the list of worst movies ever made, starring a very young Pia Zadora, might I add), my advice to you would be to keep the course. That said, I couldn't help think of it when we watched a video (featuring real footage from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and 100 percent Pia Zadora free) from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Fortunately, JPL's "Sleigh Ride over Mars" is a million light years better!