Night at the Museum

Sam's Stockade group had its third (and our second) overnight of the year, along with the 4th graders. This was short, busy and fun: an overnight at the Rochester science museum. We arrived at 6, had a show with two large Tesla coils, a pizza dinner, a motion simulator ride, a planetarium show, half an hour of constructing a simple circuit with conducting play dough, batteries and LED lights, an "egg drop" contest, and bedtime. We were up at 6:45 the next morning and out by 8. 

We slept in sleeping bags in the first floor exhibit area. Sam and I were right under a looping video of flowing magma (which happily got shut off at 11). There was a tiny bit of free time to wander the museum. It was bitterly cold outside, and our chaperones were two young women and an occasionally glimpsed security guard. I was amazed at how much they managed to pack in to the evening. They kept us busy almost right up until lights out at 11. Aside from an air-mattress loss of pressure which only affected me, the whole thing was a rollicking success.

The obligatory mastadon photo

In between two large Tesla coils was a Faraday cage in which were packed about 8 boys

Faraday was right! No one was harmed

Hard to get a good shot of a planetarium. They did a general night sky survey along with some more in-depth presentation of the star forming region in Orion. Nicely done. Turns out we have a pretty large planetarium for the size of our city: the ceiling's about 40' high

"Squishy circuits" with a younger boy

The egg drop was done off the mezzanine. The boys, in teams of 2, were given ten tokens they could use to buy materials like cups, bags, packing peanuts, rubber bands, etc., to try to construct something to protect the raw egg from breaking upon landing. Sam and Elijah decided to make a parachute out of a grocery sack and were one of three teams (our of 7 or 8?) to succeed :-)

Here are the boys horsing around at bedtime

All in all a very good time. Fun just getting to sleep out on the exhibit floor. Dad reminded me of COSI overnights when I was a boy. I recall sleeping inside a huge model of an eyeball up on the top floor of old COSI. Memories...

That recent snowstorm

In February we got a snow storm which broke a record, with maybe 14". It was enough that before the plow arrived it was simply impossible to drive the van. One neighbor got stuck and had to park in our driveway awaiting the plow. It was a reasonably warm day, and fine for playing outside. Until mid afternoon the snow just kept coming and coming. I cleared the driveway three times before I was done. The U of R actually sent folks home at 2 PM, which it never does. I was glad to have been trapped at home and not have to deal with the commute.

Below are some photos from that memory day:

Josh playing with his dump truck near while I snow blew

This gives a pretty good feel for how deep it was

The big bush outside become a snow slide for the boys

The stream, partially frozen

This was a few days later. The boys asked to climb on the huge snow pile in the Wegmans parking lot. Easily 20' high. Also a very good time. I am sure there will be snow there until June.