cybergeisha

Yesterday, Erik and I went to the Pacific Science Center.

It was so fun! When I was a little girl, it was my very favorite place to go in the entire world. Like, seriously - I liked going there more than going anywhere else. Maybe that’s why I love science so much as an adult - I was exposed to it often and in a fun, interactive way as a child.

There are so many cool things to see and do at the science center. It’s all geared towards kids, ostensibly, but it’s fun for people of all ages. It’s all interactive science - they have stuff like a scale you can step on that tells you how much you weigh on all the planets and a display where you can input different numbers into the Drake Equation and see the result.

There’s also a big display of animatronic dinosaurs that they’ve had for more than 20 years - it was my favorite when I was a little girl! The best thing is that they keep it updated and fresh, with new discoveries and science. Other favorites that have been there since I was young is a replica of the Gemini spacecraft - Erik and I climbed in and took a bunch of pictures, flipped the switches, and generally goofed around like we were little kids.

The switches and knobs all work, they light up, and it’s incredible to be in there and realize how freakin’ uncomfortable and tiny it is. And people went to SPACE in a tiny little thing JUST LIKE IT! It’s incredible. Science is so cool. Just thinking about the fact that humans have figured out how to go to space, carbon date things, synthesize natural stuff in a lab… wow.

There’s a big display of stuff called “Body Works” where you can do different stuff like see how you can transform kinetic energy to electricity by riding a stationary bike that lights up a string of light bulbs, try to balance on a pole, look at a human skeleton, test your eyesight, hearing and reaction time.

There was also an industrial robot against which you can play tic-tac-toe, in the robot display. Fun!

Their special exhibit right now is “Strange Matter,” which is all about strange properties of matter, like gloppy mud-like stuff that you can play with and then hit a button and it’ll “freeze up” because the button activates a magnetic field. Lots of stuff like magnetic liquids, man, I wish I’d gotten some pictures of that. Highly recommended!

Other favorites were teh shadow wall, where you can stand against a wall in a dark room, a flash bulb goes off and you can see your shadow, a tide pool display where you can touch sea anemones, and an oscilloscope where you could turn two knobs to change the tones and look at the shape generated.

And possibly most beautiful, they had an activity where you had to use suction cups to move a metal ball into a little cup and it looked AWESOME… but it was really difficult!

The Science Center is also home to the IMAX theatre and the planetarium. We planned to go to the planetarium show at 4PM, so we took a break after 2 hours of science fun and went to Bamboo Garden, our favorite Chinese restaurant in Seattle. All their food is vegan, but so delicious! You can’t even tell it’s vegan. I didn’t even know, the first time I went there! It’s right across from Seattle Center so we just walked there.

I’m not sure what was up with all those warning signs… It was a big empty PARKING LOT with no visible construction equipment or anything. Heh. Lunch was delicious, as it has been every time I’ve gone to Bamboo Garden.

We made it back to the Science Center with plenty of time to spare before the planetarium show so we poked around at some of the space-related exhibits, looked at the boa constrictors, and gave some love to Jupiter. It may be a failed star… but it’s not a failure in our hearts. Awwww.

The planetarium show was awesome. It was fun and informative, the guy who gave the presentation was funny. We decided we need to build our own planetarium. That’d be sweet.

We stopped before leaving and I went in to the Tropical Butterfly House (Erik didn’t want to go in, maybe he doesn’t like butterflies…). I hadn’t seen that before - it wasn’t there when I used to go to the Science Center as a child. But it was SO COOL! There were all of these gorgeous, exotic butterflies fluttering around! I took a few pictures, and one even landed on my head (no picture of that, unfortunately).

It was very warm and moist in the butterfly house, obviously, since it was a tropical butterfly habitat. The butterflies were EVERYWHERE! You had to go through this “air lock” sort of entrance and exit to make sure the butterflies didn’t get out.

I don’t have a lot of pictures of Erik and I together, since I’m usually the one with the camera. But I took a few yesterday. I’m really angry that my camera is broken, all these great pictures have a big dark patch in the middle. Afterwards, we went out for coffee at Vivace, and he gave me a hug and we went home. It was a ton of fun - yesterday was a good day.

There are actually pictures of Erik and I from Halloween this year (click for make bigger!).

My outfit should have left no reason to guess who I was supposed to be (The Devil), and most were able to figure it out, but nobody gave in to temptation or sold me their soul. Lame.

Erik time traveled back to when he was 17 and dressed like that but ended up saying he was a “80s New Wave Punk.” His hair was incredible. He has amazing powers of styling his hair to be The Sex.

The rest are below, please click to go to the larger version!

Rock Climbing Mosaic by rivetgirl

At REI Seattle, mere blocks from my apartment, they have a truly monumental climbing structure. Since we can see it from our apartment, and have never gone, Tyler, Erik and I decided to go down to REI and climb before Tyler had to go home.

It was a LOT of fun. The rock is far taller when you are standing next to it, and taller-seeming when you are half way up, looking down. I made it 3/4 of the way to the top before my wrists started hurting badly (I have tendonitis in both wrists) and I feared I’d injure myself if I climbed any more, so even though I was fairly sure I could make it, I opted to come down before reaching the top.

The boys did considerably better than I did. Tyler made it all the way to the top on his first try - not too bad for a Minnesota boy! Erik chose a very difficult climb but still made it most of the way up before he got tired and came back down. He was like spider man! Tyler tried a second ascent on one of the hardest routes and made it a good portion of the way up before he was too tired to keep going.

I’m excited to go again. It’s only $5 for REI Members (which I am) and we literally live 5 minutes (walking) away. Great exercise, too. We all felt like our arms were made out of jello and feeling the adrenaline rush on the walk home. It was surprisingly fun, a really great way to spend an hour with my friends. And I’m totally not a “sports/outdoorsy” person.

Tyler and Kristin by RivetGirl.

Well, Tyler is on his way back to Minnesota. The last week has been a lot of fun. It would have been far more fun and far less stressful if it had been cooler weather. The heat really put a lot of stress on everyone.

But all in all… It was so, so good to see him again.

I miss him already. Why we only see each other every two years or so is beyond me. Damn this whole “living in different states” situation. After 12 years, I can’t imagine not having him as a friend.

This picture just makes me so happy,