San Jose Children’s Discovery Museum

[photos posted by Mommy, captions and comments by Daddy]

Mommy had a scrapbooking Saturday in San Jose, and it was too cold and rainy to play at the park, so Andy and Leilani finally made it to the Children’s Discovery Museum.

Side note for the San Jose city planners: having nothing but paid parking lots all over the downtown does not make it a big and lively city. $5 to park next to the museum and such bad traffic circulation (even without traffic) that you just can’t drive around the block to find a free spot—you got me once again.

Anyways, when we got there, Leilani was very happy to see that the Alice in Wonderland exhibit was being held over, even if Daddy didn’t think the art was very well done:

That wasn’t Daddy’s only gripe: the flower above this climbing structure said “Do not climb” but I didn’t take a picture of it because I don’t want to be a grumpy old man. Too many of the exhibits were just mini science experiments: turn the crank to make electricity, see how air bubbles rise faster in water than in oil, etc. We tried the Tech Museum in San Jose last time, and that was far too scientific for Leilani, so we were hoping for something else here. I guess San Jose will always be too techy and geeky.

Case in point: this next exhibit was all about circles, it just happened to have a few silk scaves to dress up in because SE Asian people make circular basket boats–not pictured were a few play vegetable the children had to fight over to put them into circular baskets to play market.

But on the positive side, the museum is huge and there are plenty of just playing things. There was a real ambulance and a real firetruck (parked inside), and this stagecoach too, like the one we saw in the (San Jose) parade. Daddy had never been in a stagecoach before, so he tried this too.

But perhaps the most unique and best part of the museum was the water room. Several large fountains and air tubes that shoot the plastic balls around, even a whirlpool that sucks them under water. In the part reserved for little kids, Leilani could place the balls in the water stream and make them balance there.

In the evening, Leilani helped Mommy to make the dough for baking bread:
See the finished bread here

Leilani quote of the week: “I’m getting too old for this!” [tosses a ribbon into her box of dolls] “My babies can have it now.”

Author: Sonja

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