At the Boston Science Museum

We took one day to go to the Boston Museum of Science ... busy as all get out because it was school vacation week, but what can you do?

The first thing we did was go to the store and buy rocks, and then we had lunch. That headed off any problems. We probably could have waited, but this way nobody was hungry for the four hours we were there.

Then we headed downstairs into the Green Wing and were fascinated by the Kinetic Sculpture. I don't know exactly how long we were there, but we didn't just watch it once, we did come back to it later. I admit, it is fascinating and wonderful! But finally we delved a little deeper in, and did a few activities downstairs. C6 was a less than enthused as she really was looking for anything about tsunamis ... We wandered around, saw some exhibits, lifted flaps, went inside things.




Q5 stood in line for about 10 minutes so she could sneak up up on a video of a bird. She chose her bird, walked very slow, and managed to salt its tail.





Enthusiasm levels were just moderate, though, until Q5 and I found the escalator. Awesome! Up we went. And just at the top a gentleman was setting up to do a little talk about the Tōhoku earthquake and how the elements -- ground shaking, landslides, liquifaction, tsunami, and amplification -- might impact Boston if a good-sized earthquake were to hit locally. Q5 sat down and I pulled out my phone to make calls and tell everybody to come up. We all sat down and every time C6 heard the word tsunami she straightened up and her face shaped into a big OH! look of interest and excitement. Definitely worth spending a half hour there. At the end of the talk both girls had questions.

C6: What was the highest tsunami ever?
Speaker: Over 1,000 feet in Alaska
(*I just googled it, and it turns out the answer is actually 1720 feet, yes, in Lituya Bay, Alaska*)

Q5: How many tsunamis have there been?
Speaker: A lot. How many do you think?
Q5: 26
C6: 142
Speaker: More than that. What's the biggest number you can think of?
C6: 521

Eventually we got to the fact that there had been more tsunamis than we could count, and a million billion was more like it.

That done we were free to roam more, and now that we were out of the green wing things really picked up. We found the Science in the Park exhibit which had a LOT of things to do.

Here is C6 racing against the light ... then she does it again and really picks up speed!





Also in this play area they went on a seesaw over and over again, and discovered the secret to twirling like an ice skater.




We went to a show (electricity) which both girls had to leave early. So back upstairs it was and I managed to get them into the color and light exhibit.


\


The color exhibit had a lot of things to do ... but by far their favorite was the color wall where they could watch themselves and their multi-colored shadows.




After all that we finally left. Both girls said to me they weren't tired. But I was. Tired and hungry and tired again. Next visit I think we'll want to go back, because it was that fun.