Brodeur Family
2003-07-11
The Discovery Museums
177 Main Street
Acton, MA 01720
978-264-4200
N42.46483 W71.45637
This may appear out of chronological order since I haven't been keeping up with this as I'd like, but the correct date is listed at the top of the post.
Took a trip with the boys and Mom and Michael along for the ride. Unfortunately Shannon had to work this day. Really cool place. Actually two places - one for older kids with lots of cool science stuff and one for littler kids with toys and a big bubble sink.
Pretty easy to get to with the directions I had. Gotta love
Mapquest! I used the route feature on the GPS for the first time. Just plugged in all the places I had to turn and as the turn was coming up "Turn ahead" would appear on the screen. And then it would let you know the distance to the next turn. Pretty cool. I love technology!
We started at the part for older kids. Before we even went inside they had this big contraption with a bunch of PVC pipes going all over the place at odd angles, but arranged at the bottom almost like a keyboard. And sure enough when you hit each one of them they were tuned to a specific pitch. Then one of the coolest things I've ever seen, they had these two huge parabolic dishes. Looked like large satellite dishes. They were maybe 200 ft apart. But they were aligned in such a way that when you walked up the steps and talked into one of them, the person at the other one could here you like you were standing right there. You could whisper and they could here you perfectly clearly from a couple hundred feet away!
Then we went inside and they had all kinds of magnet experiments and a huge water whirlpool. Then on an upper level they had all kinds of sound and music experiments. We heard the theme from Rugrats about a hundred times on the xylophone. Then another floor focused on light and optical illusions. One part had a small room behind a curtain and it had a wall that looked like it was made of some sort of glow-in-the-dark material. And you stood against that wall and someone hit a button to make a flash. And your shadow stayed on the wall after you walked away.
We went to the smaller children's part later. I wish we had come earlier and gone there first because that was more Ryan's speed. He was really tired at that point. He had a lot of fun, but would have enjoyed it more if he was not tired and cranky. But that place was cool too. They had a big Lionel wooden train set. Jake would have been happy to stand at that table all day. And then a big train that you could step into and climb on and pull levers and ring the bell etc.
The next room had a sort of Rube Goldberg contraption with balls and ramps going all over the room. Then the next room had a huge, flat bubble sink with rubber aprons for the kids and lots of water toys AND a big shower-looking device where you could pull a hula hoop dipped in bubble mix up over your whole body so you were inside a bubble. Mike got a kick out of this.
Upstairs there were more rooms. Kinda neat that it was an older house and had all kinds of cool nooks and crannies and odd shaped rooms. They had one room made up like a little diner. Another had a little slide that Jake really enjoyed. He could climb the steps by himself, and they lit up as you stepped on them. His first real slide experience.
Another room was like a forest with chirping frog sounds piped in and a treehouse with a knot hole for the kids to look out. And then the attic was a ship with creaking wooden noises and ocean waves piped in.
Very nice place(s). Lots of fun for kids of all ages.
One last note: As we were leaving, everyone was hungry. So we figured we'd grab something quick at the McDonald's down the road. Wanted to get something in the kids before they fell asleep on the drive home. Figured I'd just hit the drivethru quick and let them eat in the car. No drivethru! Who the heck would put up a McDonald's if you couldn't have a drivethru?!
Uneventful day today. Went to work. Came home.
Still having problems accessing the Internet on my Kyocera QCP6035 SmartPhone. Been talking to Verizon customer service since Sunday. We've tried everything. May need to just replace the phone. But I don't think they carry them anymore. I'm hoping I can swing a deal on a 7135 upgrade. I'm going to check at the Verizon store tomorrow.
2003-07-07
Roger Williams Park Zoo
1000 Elmwood Ave
Providence, RI 02907
401-785-3510
N41.79042 W71.41470
Well, this is the first of what will hopefully be an ongoing log of the Summer 2003 happenings of the Brodeur family. I'm a little hesitant to actually post this log because I played hooky today at work so I could go. ;) But I think it was worth it. Had a fun day at the zoo with the fam.
We went with Shan, Ryan, Jacob and me along with my mother. And we met our friend Sarah from the Cape and her two kids - Ryan's friend Nathan and her daughter Alyssa. We got to the Park first. Sarah had run into a little traffic on Rte 195. And it's a good thing too, the park is a little difficult to navigate. When you get off of Rte 95 you turn left at the end of the exit, but go into the right hand lane because you need to be in the right lane to make a left hand turn. Or you can turn left at the next intersection to get you to the same place.
Then when we got into the park the problem we had is that I started following signs for the zoo and then these little blue butterfly signs seemed to be going in the same direction. So I made the mistaken assumption that those were for the zoo. And when I didn't see a sign for the zoo I followed those signs instead and parked and got the kids out. It got us to what I later figured out what the total opposite side of the park to some floral display. You see, there is a large park and the zoo exists within the park.
So anyway, we thought we were in the general area of the zoo at the time so Shan didn't want to pack the kids and stroller and paraphernalia back into the car so decided to walk while I drove over to meet her. About a mile later when I got to the zoo I turned around and went back to pick them up. But they weren't on the road back. They took a wrong turn! So it really would have taken them a long time to get there!
So we got them in the car and went back to the entrance to try it again and take mental notes to help Sarah navigate when she arrived. That's when I found the "correct" way to get to the zoo. It was a much shorter route.
So we waited at the entrance gate for a few minutes until Sarah arrived. Admission wasn't too pricey. $8 for adults, $5 for kids 3-12, free for the babies. Then we went in a little way and found a nice shady spot with benches and had a few sandwiches and drinks that Sarah had brought. Then we walked around the zoo.
Sorry to report, fairly uneventful. Typical zoo. Nothing really out of the ordinary. It was pretty hot and most of the animals weren't being too active - as we're walking around the entire zoo. Who's smarter?!
The giraffes were probably the most interesting. I found it cool how they have the animals behind barriers that aren't as visible as bars. Basically a lot of them were just dry "moats" that were the size that the particular animal would not cross or large trees that they couldn't cross and looked almost natural to the environment.
After the zoo we went over to the carousel and playground. Very nice, big carousel. $1 per ride. And the adults got on free to accompany the kids. Really large playground too with plenty to do for a variety of ages.
