Exploratorium and Palace of Fine Arts

Darin and Nathan have ranked The Exploratorium #2 on their list of all-time favorite San Francisco adventures.  It also happened that we were in California the first Wednesday of the month and they have free admittance.  Super fun place and it's free = double score!

There are hundreds on hand-on displays for children to experiment with.  It's totally awesome.  I told the boys they could go off on their own as long as they stayed together but they stayed with us most of the time.

They were using magnets to make the pendalum swing.

More magnet fun.

This was showing how electricity can be conducted throughout your body.  The kids were holding hands to close the loop and make the light bulb light up.  We tried it with all 4 of us holding hands but there wasn't enough electricity to go through all of us.

Using static electricity to make Styrofoam popcorn dance.

More electricity.

More pendulum experiments.

Looking at blown up microscopic images of different cells.  This was really awesome!

A wall of bubbles.  I'm just going to take a moment here to say, "My kids totally rock!"  My girls were waiting here patiently for 15 minutes to have their turn even though other kids were totally pushing their way in front, taking forever, and even cutting in before them.  It paid off because by the time they finally went everyone in the area had dispersed and my girls were able to have a really amazing time.

The boys HAD to show the girls the Zombie station.  I was ready to break for lunch but they begged me to let them take the girls to this station before we left. It really is a heat camera.  The warmest parts of you show up the whitest.

They had fun making faces and dancing around in front of this thing.  It was also another "My kids totally Rock!" moment.  Seriously, I cried like 3 times at the Exploratorium because I was so proud of them. It is really touching to see how my children interact with each other and go out of their way to make each other happy.  It happens all the time, but I feel like vacations have a way of magnifying what is naturally there.  Bad habits that need to be corrected have to be faced full-on and good things are even sweeter.  
Don't get me wrong, we have had to nip certain bad or just annoying behaviors in the bud on this trip like many others, but I would say 98% of the time they are truly AMAZING!

My sweet zombies!

We got the cooler out of the car and found an incredible view for our picnic lunch.

After lunch the kids went crazy feeding the birds.

They put a bunch of crumbs at the corner of the blanket to see how close the birds would come.  There was one lone bird that came close, then again my kids sounded like hyenas because they were so excited:-)

I love this boy!

What a pretty girl!

Playing in the sand.

Bicycle chains.

Nathan helped the girls make huge bubbles.

Look at the sucker!  It's so big.

Success!  The girls were able to do it on their own.

Darin and Nathan are too quick, but I caught them holding hands!  This bench would play music if you held onto the arm and held hands (to make the connection).

If you look closely you will see the people in the chess pieces.  Darin should be a big clue.

Nathan with the Robot face.  He mimics what you do.

And a couple of shots before leaving the Palace of Fine Arts.  Another great Spring Break vacation day!