Lawrence Hall O' Science!
My friend Steve and I went to the Lawrence hall of science with kids in tow, after driving up to the steam trains and getting rained on (and discovering that they open at 11:00, not 10:00!). The Hall was awesome as usual, with lots of hands on things for the kids. The only hiccup occurred when Steve and I excitedly brought the kids to one of the dinosaur rooms, and discovered that small children are inexplicably terrified of giant animatronic dinosaurs that roar, snap their jaws and lash their tails. Weird! Zoe and Kiran were both terrified of the dinosaurs, of course, and did not want to get any closer. They clearly have a more developed sense of self preservation than the adults, who were pointing and saying "coool!". Anyway, there were many other fun things to do, and we all had lunch at Top Dog. Excellent.
Next came the studio, where Zoe had her first foray into oil painting! She looked like a hazmat worker with all the gear we put on her, but the result was impressive.
From the studio, we went to the Berkeley Bowl, home to the LEAST positionally aware people on the face of the planet. Seriously, when there is just enough room for one person to get through an aisle, it makes sense to occasionally look behind you to see if you are backing people up for twenty feet. On the plus side, they had ripe cherimoya!
Finally, it was Kirala time. Living in France, you don't find yourself pining for food very often, because the food is excellent (duh!). However, there are some things that I have not been able to find. Chief among these are sushi. Kirala is one of my favorite sushi places outside of Tsukiji, so I am probably a little spoiled. Therefore, a stop at Kirala is always required when I am back in Berkeley. This time was special, because it was the first time that Zoe was big enough to come to the sushi bar with us. We ordered her standard kid fare: Kappa and Tekka, which she happily ate (the sushi chef recommended Ikura next time), but she surprised us all when she pointed at the Saba, and indicated that it was hers! Saba is not what is considered a "beginner" sushi: it is a bit fishy and has a thick skin on it. From there, she went through all the adult sushis, which impressed the sushi chef so much, that he made two very special Zoe sized sushi! I actually was watching him when he made them, and was thinking to myself that they looked really, really small. I did notice that he seemed to be putting more effort into this sushi than the rest, even stepping back and surveying the symmetry of the tiny maguro in a sea of Hinoki.
