Annabelle, building a carbon dioxide molecule at the Pacific Science Center
COME ON DOWN!: This afternoon we had to make a trip to the Pacific Science Center to return one of Annabelle's birthday gifts - a flying, remote controlled clown fish (everyone needs one of those, don't they)? Problem with ours was it was defective. Christian took it to the store to get $4 worth of helium put in it and the thing immediately started leaking. Not cool - and super disappointing for the birthday girl.
So today we set out to right a wrong. The people working the PSC store were very nice about the return, which I appreciate.
Of course, since we were at the Science Center, we had to do more than just browse the gift shop. We ended up spending two full hours there checking out exhibits. There were some new attractions since our last time through, less than a month ago, and the kids love revisiting old favorites.
We also were on site for the 3 p.m. live science show, which is always wildly entertaining. Today's theme was bipedalism (a game show favorite, no doubt). The "lecture" was presented like a game show that was a hybrid of "Wheel of Fortune," "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", "Deal or No Deal." and even some "Survivor" built in.
The game show host-slash-scientist split the crowd in half, a red team and a yellow team. Bee and I were Team Yellow, CJ was Red. For each of the first two rounds, the host gave a short, fact-filled talk about bipedalism and Lucy. He then chose one person from each side of the room to represent the team, and asked them questions. The audience could help their representative by shouting out the answer.
Annabelle was selected as our representative for Round 2 and she did us proud. She answered each of her questions correctly, including smartly ignoring most of the Yellow team's audience screaming at her that Lucy was found in Kenya. She knew it was Ethiopia. :) After Annabelle's turn we had come from behind and were leading the contest.
Then it was time for the Sudden Death round. A curly haired boy was now representing our team and we got to go first since we were in the lead. The host asked, "What's does Lucy's name mean in the language of the Dikika (the area where Lucy was found)?"
From our side of the room- CRICKETS. I had forgotten and no one else had anything to contribute, either - until Annabelle piped up with "You are wonderful."
I thought it ironic when a woman behind me leaned forward and asked Annabelle, "Are you SURE?" I mean, like ANYONE else had any friggin CLUE what the right answer was. Undaunted, Annabelle answered, "Yes. I'm sure. 'You are wonderful.' " And so curly headed boy submitted 'our' answer and Team Yellow rode Annabelle's back (well, brain) to a sweet, sweet victory.
After the game show, the kids were nowhere near ready to leave the science center. CJ, especially, wanted to hang around. So, at his urging, we went and checked out the bug exhibit and the butterfly sanctuary.
We also spent some time at the salt water tidepool, where CJ asked the attendant why the hermit crabs were kept in their own fenced in area instead of out and about with all the other creatures. The man told CJ it was because the urchins liked the taste of crab meat. :)
THE DOCTOR IS IN: For her birthday, Annabelle received a doctor's kit (thanks G&G!). CJ was brave enough to let Annabelle give him a brief physical this morning. He passed with flying colors.
MEANWHILE, OVER IN EUROPE: We started our day today by watching a rocket launch. This time it wasn't a NASA or Russian launch, but a European Space Agency event. The launch was historic because it marked the first time a Soyuz rocket has been launched in French Guiana Space Centre. You can watch a replay if you check out this story on BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15372540
photo: German Aerospace Center
It was fun to hear a countdown to liftoff in French for our first time!
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