The Shadow Lady and I took my cousin to the Pacific Science Center.  We're members there, and since we visited the Shadow Lady's Sisters' church (they were singing together for the Offertory), we were already in Seattle, so it seemed the perfect Sunday outing.  As always, I had a GREAT time!

We parked in a different place than we usually do, and went in a different entrance - one I'd not used before.  The "Street entrance", if you will... its not through the Seattle Center gates.

The first thing we ran into was a display about NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is part of the US Department of Commerce.

They had several items out for display, including a Tsunami Bouy.

They also had a considerable amount of space allotted towards the history of weather reporting, and map surveys, which was apparently a division of NOAA until it was split out into the USGS.

It was interesting to see equipment used by early meteorologists, and how detailed their logs were... someone had to draw those lines in the book BY HAND!  

George Davidson was a surveyor of the west for NOAA.  He mapped a significant portion of the western regions of the US, and was well known to pioneers and native Americans living in the area.

They had displays of the survey equipment used, which included pictures of his team in the field... they lived in fairly rustic tent cities as they surveyed an area, then they packed up, and set up shop someplace else.

Even his Dog retired from the Service....

An early map produced by NOAA, showing the early understanding of the world's ocean currents.

The Bathometric maps of Elliot Bay and the elevation map of the northwest coast were pretty interesting, too. 

We stayed there for probably longer than my cousin and The Shadow Lady wanted... :-)

 
One display, actually right inside the door, was a lever contraption, showing how work could be distributed to the tool... she's lifting a weight over 900 pounds, all with a simple pull.

I had fun with some of the displays...  then realized that I was being watched!  :-)

The "Grip Meter" read 855.  I don't know what scale its on.  The lights showing the grip results max out at about 700, it seemed, and after 900, it said "ouch"... :)

One of the things we stopped at was a demonstration of "Dangerous Science", which included information on types of explosions, and how they could be controlled to make either rockets or projectiles.

The grand finale was an explosion that shot water all over the place - including the crowd.  He put liquid nitrogen in a 2-liter bottle of pop, and submerged it in the can of water.  It boiled into a gas, eventually bursting the bottle, providing the force for the 'explosion'.

It was fun!

We went through the current display, "Colossal Fossils" - a display of large bones found throughout the world.

The Shadow Lady found a place to sit, and became part of the Jurassic Period for a while.  :-)

 
Some of the skeletons found weren't all that large...

... while others towered over the set!

These are eggs, supposedly.

How do they know they're not droppings?

I guess they may have cut into them or something, although non on display were cross-sectioned to show a young one inside.

Me playing with the "Camouflage" display. 

Were it not for my cap giving me away, you'd never have seen me in this picture!

Every time I go to the Science Center, I try to make sure we have time to swing through the butterfly room... its AWESOME!

The attendant at the door said there were some 700-900 butterflies in the room, which is pretty amazing!

In anticipation of going into the room, I wore a yellow shirt, hoping to attract one to land on me.

It worked!  :-)

 
The colors of the delicate insects are amazing!

 
Again, we probably stayed in the room longer than The Shadow Lady and my cousin wanted... they eventually got me herded toward the door.

on the way out, we swung by the "birthing" station... it had butterflies in different stages of chrysalis development... and one was pumping up its wings while we were there. 

They had a lot of different kinds on display.

In all, the visit to the Science Center was VERY fun, and we enjoyed it quite a bit!

We'll be back, I'm sure of it... :-) 

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