My kids had their Spring break last week, and while we weren’t able to go out of town, we did manage to do something fun with them. Every native San Diegan visits the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center during their school years, and that’s exactly what comes to mind every time it’s mentioned. I’ve only been there a handful of times since, and I think that’s a pity. I mean, it’s always been interesting, given that they’ve always had hands-on exhibits of some sort. But it just never struck my fancy in a way that would warrant repeat visits. I took my toddler last year, on “Free Tuesday”, and visited their “Kid City” for the first time. I wasn’t aware it existed. It would have been nice to have known about it before then, since I was a stay-at-home mom with little ones. Which I still am, only my little ones are not so little any more (Kid City is only for up to age 5).
However, before I digress any further, I must say that this time around, I grew quite enamored with it! I don’t know what it was… I mean, it was still crowded, and I did have 4 kids to supervise (my 3 + a niece, with my husband’s help), but I just wasn’t as stressed out as I think I normally would be. And I really enjoyed their exhibits. One thing in particular, where my son and I spent a good amount of time: the high-sided table downstairs (there’s one upstairs as well, which I wish I’d known about, because then we could’ve been close to my daughter who was playing with the building blocks with dad — must go back to spend a good long while with my son doing that!), with the huge metal spinning disk in the middle. It has smaller, plastic/resin disks that you spin onto the metal one, which causes all sorts of cool reactions. The smaller disks would either spin straight across and right off the other side, or fall flat and shoot off, or, if you were lucky, the wide ones would spin on their flat side, and sort of do a dance across the thing, sometimes even with one side slightly raised! It is the coolest thing. The wind storm and vortex displays are cool too. Then you have your old standbys, like the “whispering secrets” one, where you sit on one side of the room and whisper into a giant red concave circle, and the person in front of the other one clear across the room can hear you. How does that work?? Pretty cool.
So, in conclusion, now that we have a membership-AND IT COVERS UP TO *SIX* KIDS!-we will be visiting a lot more. $53 for a year’s admission to the science center (which does not include the IMAX theater, but that’s ok), for 2 adults and 6 unspecified kids is a damn good deal! That means I can bring 3 extra kids if I need to, or 5 extra kids if I only bring my son, while the girls are in school, for example. My mind is reeling! I’m such a dork! But seriously, Kid City is pretty cool, and I’m excited to be able to take my son whenever he wants. The poor guy doesn’t get out much. We should’ve become members long ago! He’ll be 5 in June, and that’s the age limit for Kid City… not that I foresee us getting kicked out or anything, but you get my point. There’s a Fire Engine! And a car that seats us comfortably! It feels like a Mini Cooper, kinda. Not that I would know what a Mini Cooper feels like. So go forth, and visit the science center! I highly recommend it.
Please excuse the blurry iPhone pictures:
A hair-raising experience!
Boys & steering wheels
