A Day with the spawn of Mr. Science

Being the good mother that I am, I always try to inject something educational into our family trips. This time last week was the day that I scheduled for a visit to Science World while we were in Vancouver. Now the older male in this household was given the moniker "Mr. Science" by my girlfriend's daughter years ago when she was about Giselle's age. He's always loved science, probably could have been a doctor the way he retains medical facts and information, but probably also a teacher/professor in his ability to explain at different levels. Yeah, I'm basically a science geek too, but he's at an upper echelon. During our prenatal clases when I was pregnant with Liam, he answered so many questions posed by the nurse that she thought he was a doctor; he only wanted to hurry the class along. So a visit to Science World for his kids was certainly in order.

The journey last Monday was our big adventure solo, sans the working father. A day for Mom to take the kids through downtown on her own, to the ferry for a quick trip across the bay to the shiny dome of fun. And then hopefully back downtown via the skytrain. That's as "survivor" as I get.

Being directionally challenged, we still managed to make our way from the hotel to the ferry dock in about 10 minutes. Not without some angst along the way courtesy of Liam, who for some reason just doesn't trust his mother's navigational instincts. He was the keeper of the map, as he didn't want me to lose it. Now with all the construction going on around the harbour and the detours on the seawall, it wasn't surprising that it looked a little deserted at the dock. It was also a Monday morning, so it was quiet for the ferries (aquataxis, really). Despite Liam's reservations, we managed to get onto the ferry for our 3 minute ride - he was so relieved he had to rough-house his sister:
We made it! In front of the attraction, and then inside going up the ramp:


The one thing that I loved about this place was that all the activities were contained and situated such that I could see both kids at the same time. When they're almost 5 years apart in age, it's only natural that they don't want to hang out at the same exhibits. So in contrast with the sprawling Ontario Science Centre, I was able to enjoy the time without wishing I had eyes at the back of my head.

Here's my hero hippo lifting:

And my psychedelic tot dancing to "Hot Stuff" (we were in there for at least half an hour):

After a not-at-all bad lunch at the in-house White Spot restaurant (they're all over Vancouver); little miss passed out so her brother and I spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the Grossology exhibit:

An afternoon about burping, farting, snot, belching, body odour, bad breath and a lot of other lovely things that come from one's body. Liam even stuck his nose into this pipe to try to identify what body part that particular bacteria smell came from. Smart boy - he identified the anus in half a second. Too bad his Dad was at work or he could have shown his son a thing or two.

Liam was in heaven. I even bought him a $6 jar of farting goo as a souvenir. Hey, all in the interest of my child's education!