It Doesn't Rain Indoors

Today was a slightly rainy Seattle day so it was good we had planned on spending it at the Pacific Science Center near the Space Needle. I loved it.

The Pacific Science center is made up of four exhibit halls, two IMAX theaters and a planetarium set up around an involved water feature that is part fountains, part sculptures rising from the water and mostly walkways and stairs connecting the buildings, with three tall complicated gothic box arches that, from a distance, make it look like the skeleton of a cathedral.

Inside it is mostly small hands on exhibits around themes and the kids love it. My favorite was the insect wing. Everything you wanted to know about insects. Six legs, three body segments was the main thing I got out of it. The best part though was the Butterfly Atrium. Tropical butterflies flitting about in a flowering jungle. Two of them landed on me when I sat very still. This one time it wouldn't fly away for the longest time, even when I was ready to go and shook my clothes. He was my new best friend. It fascinated this little girl who sat down on her haunches and stared at this black butterfly with parallel bright spots. He was resting on my ankle. We both just started at this little guy forever. He had no fear. Finally he released me (though I liked being visited by a butterfly) and I could go. They check you for stowaways on the way out, make you spin around and everything. My guy was trying to escape. Though why he would want to leave the jungle for rainy Seattle I don't know.

We saw two IMAX movies, both in 3D. One was an absorbing look at all the new information about dinosaurs since I was a kid. It focused on the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, and the Badlands in the Southwest USA. They talked a lot about life assemblages, fossils that catch the dinosaurs in the act of living their lives, and so show us behavior. One was of a baby Triceratops type dinosaur and a small Velociraptor type one that were entangled, fighting to the death. They were buried alive somehow as the fought and we can now see predatory and defensive tactics.

The second IMAX we saw was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It looked great since it was a flat screen (not a dome) and the final showdown was in 3D! They give you these goggles that look like weak sunglasses (we think it works through oppositely polarized lenses) and it does an amazing job. If you've seen that movie you know how cool that final fight would look reaching out at you and you are right.

Well we must leave tomorrow (sniff) and early. Good night!