Picante/LHOS
Loud, slightly yuppie, long lines, but some of our favorite mexican food (and best chilaquiles).
Zoe and I went to Lawrence Hall of Science, which like all science museums in the bay area is a little overpriced, but still wonderful. First, there was a giant orange pushy thing:
which consisted of orange pegs that could be pushed to one extreme or the other. Kids were in constant motion pushing the pegs to one side and then running to the other side to push them back. Sometimes teams of kids would arrange themselves on either side for more efficient pushing. The patterns varied from the ever popular hand, to the full body body slam, to subtle lines traced with a finger.
Next: another zoetrope!
And then an excellent set of activites on roller coasters, where you could push balls down tracks
Next, the Zoe Show
And Kaleidezoe
When I was a kid, I went to several classes at the LHOS, and had memories of the huge double stairway that led to the lower level. Hoping that there might be something worth looking at down below, we walked down the stairs and into a lab. They were doing a workshop on walking/drawing machines. The idea is to make a "walker" that moves by an imbalanced motor (a DC motor with an asymmetrical weight attached to it). Then you attach pens, and have it draw as it "walks". Zoe loved it, even if I had to do most of the work. What gave her particular delight was to attach the leads to the motor while I was trying to repair the walker (it fell apart every 10 seconds or so), which would send another piece flying. Then the cycle would repeat, with hysterical Zoe giggles in the background.
From this room, it was on to the room full of animals, where Zoe got to pet a chinchilla,
look at snakes and crabs, and then leave when a busload of kids showed up. Next, we walked down the hall and saw a full sized cast of a T-rex skull. Zoe was starting to flag at this point, so we went upstairs to a display that had a wind tunnel that you could feed various cups, string and paper into, some more orange pushy thing action, and then finally to the Bane Of The Parent: The Museum Store. Here, it turned out that Zoe wanted pretty much everything, but especially a flower printed canteen. However, while in line, she saw a kid playing with a Hoberman Sphere, and it was as if the whole world had descended into night, except for the sphere. She looked at me seriously, put down the canteen, pointed at the sphere and said "That one, daddy". And then beckoned for my hand to bring me to the toy. Who am I to resist that? I looked at a Lawrence cyclotron on the way out. We've come a long way.
