The Exploratorium

We had a great time at the Exploratorium in San Francisco.  Mark went up for an alumni meeting for the University of Edinburgh.  He hung out with us for a little in the morning, then left us for his meetings while we played the rest of the day.  There was plenty to see in the Exploratorium (a hands on really cool museum) to take up the whole day, but the kids attention waned after about 5-6 hours.  Luckily there were cool things to see outside.  We all had fun.

 The little chair is doubled, then doubled again.

 Lily loved the sunlight on the floor.

 Fun benches

 If a person steps where Lily is standing, it made the machine move and light up.  She walked across the way from us exploring and accidentally stepped on the pad.  She was so excited!  She just looked and looked waiting for it to happen again.  But the best part was the people around her.  A small group gathered watching her.  They saw her excitement when the machine lit up, so they tried encouraging her to do it again.  I saw this group of adults jumping and stomping while showing her what to do.  It was so funny! And she just wasn't understanding.  Every once and a while she would step to move away and it would light up and fascinate her and encourage the group to jump and stomp and cheer more.

 This amazing model is made of small toothpick size pieces of wood.  The amazing part is that there are paths for marbles to go around and the whole thing is different parts of San Francisco.

 The rotating sand table was a favorite.  When we were tired and worn out, but still waiting for Mark, we spent a long time here.