The days are long and the years are short

It was fun. I also freaked T out by taking him by the National Museum of the American Indian. He had literally never seen it before. It was dedicated in 2004 (and wasn't built too much before).

I saw a bunch of panels. T and Emily wandered aimlessly and played with Legos.

We got to see the Hi-Bay. There was a satellite in the Clean Room (the SDO). The centrifuge was in operation (just for show, not testing).

We spent hours on the Earth Observing stuff, and a few Mars testing things in the same area. So we really had to rush through the other areas.

The link to the LaunchFest is here. There was just too much stuff to see. But Emily and her friend were very happy to see what they did see.

There were off-site parking areas with buses. And buses to circulate people from building to building. But the circulation buses turned into a major disaster and sometimes went on different routes than they were supposed to. There was a prize for going to all the buildings, but they decided to make it 4 out of 6 in the end. T really wanted to go to the spacecraft fabrication/machine shop building, but there was no time.

We were there with three visitors from Italy, who spoke, umm, no English (a little English--like first year in school). The two adults who spoke both English and Italian spent a lot of time translating. One of the visitors from Italy was fascinated with spacesuit fabrics and there was a long back-and-forth through the translator about it.

Oh, and the kids got their names written in Braille.

And I have been blogging for 1 year this month!

Emily and T are drawing spacey pictures and experimenting with artificial gravity (with WATER !!!!).

Tomorrow must be devoted to sorting, labeling, pricing and packing for transport children's clothes and toys.

We managed to see it on Wednesday night. mark7blue called and he and Emily chatted on the phone for much of the eclipse. The moon was wonderfully red and we could see just about everything. I am really glad that I found the details of the time and T found that the weather would clear up just before the whole thing started.

They are looking for astronauts. Emily would love that job.

We had to cancel today's play date.

Space camp was probably good for Emily. The first week, they didn't challenge her knowledge of space and spacey themes. The second week, they definitely ramped up. Perhaps because they knew her from the first week, perhaps because Endeavour was launched this week. They spoke about dehydration, which is a big risk in weightlessness, because your body doesn't signal thirst. They spoke about asteroids and meteorites and the difference. Emily liked the sports, and coloring, and made a good friend in a boy named Ben. Today's play date was supposed to be with him. The two of them also played a lot of games involving ghosts at camp.

Emily knows a lot more vocabulary than I would expect from a girl of her tender years. She was playing a game on PBSkids.org that made that surprisingly obvious. "Silhouette" was one word that surprised me.

I don't know if I need to worry about whether she is gifted. The public schools here do definitely have offerings for G&T kids, both pull-out and special dedicated schools.  I would definitely prefer that she not have to go to the special dedicated schools, though.

Tim has a headache from lack of caffeine. This is his usual weekend ailment.

Tim and Emily watched the ISS pass overhead with binoculars. Tim was more impressed than Emily. He said that it is brighter than Venus.

On Saturday, we went downtown and checked out the displays on the Mall. We saw the James Webb Space Telescope model. Then one of the presenters helpfully told us where the other "spacey" stuff was, so we skipped right to it. Northrop Grumman had Lego models of the telescope. Emily picked up a SpaceKids coloring book (Northrop Grumman). Tim was impressed to see that the satellite system he is working on is in the coloring book. We picked up plenty of swag. Emily and two other children were so happy to stand on the interactive floor and kick pretend rocks around. They were talking about it afterwards.

Sunday, we had a quiet day. I got a fair amount of gardening done and Tim added sand to Emily's sandbox, so she played in the new sand. I planted corn and beans together so the beans can climb up the corn stalks.

Apparently, Walt Disney was very interested in the the idea of human space travel. He commissioned three animated non-fiction movies in order to convince the American public to share his interest. "Man and the Moon", "Man and Space". "Mars and Beyond" were shown on TV between 1955 and 1957. Von Braun was the technical adviser on these shows. (link)

So did that influence the placement of Disney World in Orlando, just 45 miles from Cape Canaveral? A nice family vacation can include both easily.

Speaking of family vacations, May 11-13 is the 400th anniversary of the landing at Jamestown. It would be nice to check that out, but I don't think we can (since Tim will be in Valley Forge, PA on the 11th). But Jamestown will have exhibits all year, especially for the anniversary.