Good-bye Lacey

Today we said good-bye to Lacey the guinea pig and we returned her to the nature center.    We enjoyed putting a treat in her cage and watching her quickly grab it and retreat to her igloo while she eats it.  Fortunately, we persuaded Laura to take a break from a pet for a few weeks.

Hiller Museum of Aviation

I signed us up for the Aero Design Challenge at the Hiller Aviation Museum, because it seemed like a cool way to see the museum (and it was free!).

The program included a brief tour of the museum which exhibited
machines from the beginning of flight, both successful and unsuccessful.  The program included several cool activities.  The first, they were supposed to create something that would float in their wind tunnel.

Benjamin testing his creation in the wind tunnel.

Next, they experimented with the wingspan on some basic balsa wood gliders.

Then they got to try a flight simulator.

Finally, they had to create their own gliders with the materials given and the program ended with a competition to see which glider would go the farthest.

Showing off the glider they built.

Preparing to launch their glider for the competition.

Academy of Sciences

January 20, 2018 we had free tickets from the library to go to the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.  We left as early as we could (around 9am) so that we could snag street parking in the park relatively close to the museum.

The museum is a combination aquarium, planetarium and natural history museum.  We saw the Earthquake planetarium show, penguin feeding and coral reef dive show.  Other highlights are the rain forest exhibit with free flying butterflies and the earthquake simulation.

Looking at butterflies in the rainforest exhibit.

Laura hard at work on her junior scientist patch

Laura displaying her junior scientist certificate in front of the huge t-Rex skeleton at the museum's entrance. 

Laura's Basketball Career

Laura enjoyed her first basketball game with the Vallejo Mill Elementary team.  They lost their first two games, but they are working hard and hope to be able to more reliably get the ball in the basket very soon.

Laura shooting a basket after the referee called a foul.

Laura is switching to Niles Elementary School on Monday, and we have asked if she can still participate on the Vallejo Mill basketball team.

Laura in action at her second, and possibly her last basketball game.

Rent-a-pet

On Sunday, January 14, we went to a nearby nature center that has an 'animal lending library' which allows us to rent a pet (unfortunately they only have various kinds of rodents) for a week.  I still don't want to dedicate time to a permanent pet, but I think a week would be OK.  Laura is hopeful that by demonstrating her ability to care for a pet, we will be persuaded to get her one.

Laura and our temporary pet hamster Taiga.

Taiga is checking out the playground Laura made for him.

Of course Laura had to introduce her new friend to her hamster clam.

Can you spot Taiga?

Good-bye Taiga.  He can't stay still for long!

Sunday, January 21, we had to return Taiga, but we decided to give a guinea pig a try, so now we are spending the week with Lacey.

Meet Lacey the guinea pig.  She is much bigger than Taiga and, unlike hamsters, she is active during the day.

Point Reyes National Seashore

Today we took a drive to Point Reyes National Seashore.  Two of the more popular activities there are whale watching and elephant seal observing.  Since this is prime season for these attractions, the park runs a shuttle to the various observation locations.

Our first stop was the Drake Beach visitor center.  Here two elephant seals happened to be sitting on the beach right by the visitor center.

Joshua up close to the elephant seal.

Laura pretending to be an elephant seal.

After lunch, we boarded the shuttle to the lighthouse area which is the optimal whale watching location.  We saw some spouts from a whale's blowhole, but seeing the actual whale is more difficult.. Dave, Laura and Benjamin walked down the 308 steps to see the lighthouse (and then back up 308 steps).

Laura working on her Junior Ranger patch in the Lighthouse Visitor Center/Museum.  It discussed some of the shipwrecks prior to the building of the lighthouse.

Then we boarded the shuttle bus again and rode it to Chimney Rock which has an overlook to the beach with the elephant seals.

On the walk between the shuttle stop and the overlook, Laura spotted a centipede crossing the path.  Ever the animal lover, she insisted on moving it to safety (but she photographed it first).

ei

We could see at least 100 elephant seals testing on the beach.  We also saw a few frolicking in the water.

Scopes were available to get a closer view of the elephant seals.

Unfortunately we did not get back to the visitor center before it closed, so Laura did not receive her junior ranger patch.

Laura posing for a photo in front of the endangered Tule Elk that were reintroduced in this park 40 years ago.

One night to Mexico and one day and two nights back

Our next adventure is on the Carnival cruise ship the Inspiration.  Our cruise left Long Beach on January 2.   We checked into our cruise at the Carnival cruise terminal, which is the geodesic dome built to house the Spruce Goose airplane. After waiting on several long lines, we boarded the ship, dropped our bags in our staterooms and managed to find the Lido Deck which a lunch buffet was being served until the boat had to prepare for departure.  The pre-departure safety drill included tagging all kids 12 and under with a wristband which would tell crew members where the kid belongs in case of an emergency.  Laura was upset to be tagged with a nonremovable wristband while her brothers were not.

Laura loved singing karioke

We explored the ship until our 8:15 dinner in the main dining room.

When we woke up the next morning we were docked in Ensenada Mexico.  We entertained ourselves on the ship for the morning (miniature golf, ping-pong, chess,  shuffleoard),

then took a topless bus tour in the afternoon ("The bus is topless, not the passengers", and it's "the only topless bus in Ensenada").

Waiting for our bus tour of Ensenada.  Our cruise ship is in the background.

Dave and tour guide on our bus tour.

Back on the boat around sunset, the boat is getting ready to depart.  The birds like to hang around the eating area.

We dressed up for the formal attire dinner.  At the end of the meal, the wait staff sang and danced with the kids.

The kids spent the evening in the teen activity rooms.

The third day of our cruise was "at sea".  It took us approximately 12 hours to travel from Long Beach to Ensenada, but it took 36 hours return to Long  Beach, so we cruised much slower on the return trip.

That morning, we started off with brunch in the dining room

Laura's fruit plate was a work of art.

The kids enjoyed chocolate chip pancakes for the main course.

Apparently Carnival is know for its towel animals--a different one in each stateroom each day.  Today we had a dog and the boys' room had a stingray..

Then the kids took advantage of some of the planned activities and played video games in the teen room.  Laura spent the day with her new friend playing games in the Shakespeare Library, hanging out in the pool, and participating in Harry Potter trivia.  While Dave, Joshua and Benjamin enjoyed a late afternoon screening of the Wonder Woman movie, I packed our bags for home.

In the atrium of the cruise ship.

The next morning we had a quick, early breakfast, then disembarked from the boat.

The kids standout outside the buffet eating area in front of the pool.

We stopped at the Getty Museum on our way back to Fremont.

Universal Studios

We often skip the more popular and crowded attractions, but this time we did manage to spend a day in Universal Studios.  We targeted New Year's Day hoping that the crowds would be manageable.  We bought tickets online so that we could enter the park an hour before the official 9am opening.

Laiua loved the Harry Potter themed area.

By the time the park officially opened, Laura had gone on the popular Harry Potter ride twice and we were heading to the Despicable Me ride which opened at 9am.

Wearing Minion Goggles

Laura posing with a tall French woman.  Later in the day we had to wait on line for photos with characters.

We saw the Special Effects show, but missed the Animal Actors show because the park was having technical difficulties which closed some of the attractions, including these shows.  By this time we were tired and decided to head out.

The next morning we stopped at the La Brea Tar Pits and the Page Museum on our way to the cruise terminal in Long Beach.