We arrived at the Pacific Science Center just before they opened (as opposed to just before they closed like we did on Monday) making it probably the first time this trip that something happened exactly the way we hoped. Since it was raining, Cliff - our personal night in shining armor- dropped the three of us outside while he parked the car. Our ticket included a movie and I have to admit that Alex picked the one that interested me the least but after watching it I was so glad he chose it!
I had read that the center was really big and to be honest I was a little surprised that it wasn't bigger. I think it probably was but the floor plan was a bit confusing making it difficult to see everything. I will definitely admit that if I lived near this I would purchase a membership and bring my kids often (maybe not if I had to pay for parking every time...). If we had a full day to explore each area of the center I'm sure it would be oodles of fun for the kids and there are gobs of lessons you could teach using the place as a tool.
Evelyn was getting tired and grumpy (big surprise, she hasn't napped in days) and all she wanted to do was play with the water table. By some miracle we distracted her long enough to walk her out of sight of it and by then she decided she only wanted to play with the 3D puzzle pieces. Tired child! We made our way past the naked mole rats (eww!) and to the butterfly house. Oh my, that could of been such a disaster but luckily her mood improved long enough to go inside with Daddy, Brother, and me. I think a butterfly landed on her head because she freaked out, luckily stopping when she saw how excited we all were when one landed on Alex.
90 minutes wasn't nearly enough time to do all our investigating but it did allow us enough time to see a little of everything before our movie started. The movie was "Born to be Wild" in Imax 3D, narrated by Morgan Freeman. I was really worried that Evelyn would NOT want to wear glasses for the movie and without them it's hard to see but she did great keeping them on (even with her grumpiness). I'm sure it helped that they had glasses in 3 sizes so they were a comfortable fit for everyone.
The movie was very 'close' and sometimes uncomfortably so. It was hilarious to watch Evelyn try, multiple times, to grab or move things that were put in front of her. It was a very sweet movie following two people: one who raises orphan elephants, and the another who raises orphan orangutans and then both put them back into the wild. Evelyn didn't care much for the Elephants, she wanted to see more about the orangutans. Probably because they were so silly.
The only drama came at the end of the movie when Evelyn had to give her 'sunglasses' back. Oh boy, did that make her mad. Good thing we were ready to leave town because she kicked and screamed the whole way out of the theater.
We were urged to head out of town around noon if we didn't want to hit traffic and we got back to our car by 12:30. Not to bad in my books. Our plan was to meet up with a friend of mine in Olympia but she got called into work so we found some snacks in the truck and started out for home.
We should of taken the advice to heart. Or at least more seriously than we did. In a town that has a 24 hour carpool lane you need to be scared! OH. MY. GAWD! Can't say we weren't warned.
The traffic was from hell! The funny thing about canceling lunch with my friend (who was1 hour from where we started and 1 hour from where we were going) was that it took us four hours to get to her town, right around when she got off from work. We stopped for food at a Safeway in Olympia-or at least near to it (and the restroom that I had planned on using at the PSC but chose to hold it so we could get on the road then had to keep holding it). The Safeway Starbucks restroom was one of the worst ones I've ever seen. It was more than I could bare! The bushes outside were looking mighty inviting though. Still trying to float away I picked up some lunch meat and cheese from the deli so I could make sandwiches in the car. Deli meat may seem like a pricier option, but it meant that a) didn't have to store leftovers, b) everyone got to pick what kind of sandwich they wanted, and c) was 75% cheaper than getting a store sandwich for everyone.
When I returned to the truck I discovered that we had a flat tire -are you kidding me?!?! Cliff tried to repair it with that spray can of flat tire fix it only to realize it was sidewall tear and not repairable. UGH! To access the spare tire we had to move the kids, the car seat, and all our gear we had stashed inside the cab. The aggravation was so high for Cliff and I, but then we remembered it could be raining and we remembered a way to get it all done and still love each other. This was especially true, when Cliff agreed to drive me over to a 'cleaner' restroom once we were back on the road.
After my scare with not remembering that Evelyn was eating a burger when I got in the car accident I've been a bit neurotic about eating in the car. I checked on Evelyn when I finished my sandwich only to see turkey hanging out of her mouth and her head slumped sideways. I start to panic thinking she'd choked and I didn't notice so I started shaking her and saying her name loudly (now freaking out driving Cliff as well) still with no reaction. Just when I'm about to completely loose it and freak out her eyes flutter open and go to take another bite of the sandwich I was trying to pry out of her hands. She was asleep! I told her if she wanted to sleep she needed to spit out her bite of food-which she did- then I tried to put my heart back into my chest.
7:30pm and we finally made it back home (not really home I suppose, but it feels like home to me). Only took us 5 hours longer than it should have. No, I'm not grumpy at all (anymore), I'm just glad we're home.
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