We took our first trip up to Haifa today and it was our new favorite place in Israel.
He was waking up at 5. Somewhere in there he got up on the bed and came and pressed his head against mine on the pillow. Lay with me for a few minutes before going back over to Carly, who was down on the Zinnie bed. He was ready to get up but she said it was hard to stand up. So he was showing her: “See, easy peasy” I got up too and Carly made him Cheerios and strawberries and then went back upstairs while I stayed with him. He started with some Timmy Time. He then typed on my iPad, and then asked me to hook up the keyboard so he could play in GarageBand. Carly came down and I went up and took a shower. I heard him playing some nice loud guitar for her.
It was a bit hard to get him going out to the car, but we left just before 9. We read the Max Axiom Photosynthesis book on the way, and he was acting out a water cycle, with it going in his feet and out his head. He was also blasting monsters from the car. He ate some of his cucumber sandwich and said “It’s waterproof…it becomes a submarine sandwich.” That’s from The 91-Story Treehouse. We played Drops, then asked to listen to music. He said “I have an idea! When we go on a short trip we listen to short songs. And when we go on long adventured we listen to long music.”
Parking was reminiscent of Tel Aviv, so took some time to find a spot, but we eventually parked a few blocks east of the Madatech Science Museum. Carly had read about street art along Masada Street, a block north of where we parked, so we walked up and along that road to the science museum. Not a ton of art, but a fair amount, and a lot of cafes and interesting trees. But not too rich and fancy. We stopped along the way to look at different pieces of art, and August got out of the stroller to take photos a few times.
We got to the science museum at 10:45. It was really nice, but felt like kind of a ripoff: The website, in English, offered a good ‘first year resident’ discount. It didn’t mention you had to have the actual immigrant card. But since we came expecting that discount it meant we didn’t buy tickets online in advance, which would have saved over $10. So we had to pay the full amount, over $51 for me and Carly. Soon figured out that an annual membership would make sense for us, but the box office was then closed, and when I found someone to ask they said our ticket purchase today couldn’t be applied to the membership, which is pretty SOP (or should be), as far as I know. So kind of opaque/sleazy all around.
Anyway, the museum itself was pretty impressive, and much nicer and bigger than the ones closer to us. We first started with the preschool area, which is more of a play area. Pushed through some big tall ‘grass’ and used a periscope, then went through a little mirror maze, then played in the water area. I asked how the water stuff worked and he showed me how you pour water through funnels: “See? Easy peasy!” There was a blue blocks area (a la Seoul Children’s Museum and Philadelphia) and he played in there, mainly with Carly. After awhile he asked “Can we look for more sciency stuff please?” But first one more trip through the grass, then I took him to the bathroom.
We headed upstairs to the exhibit. First did the room on green energy. August was acting like he did in the last science center: wanting to do everything, but also wanting to be carried/held. After we’d gone through most of the room (solar panels, bikes that make a train move (I bashed my knee on a metal bar as Carly and I rode the bikes), geothermal, etc.) and headed upstairs to the ‘Green Home’ section I talked to him and asked if he was having fun, etc. He agreed he was and agreed he could walk and did get down and seemed much more comfortable after that. Had fun with the hand sensors in the green home area – he flushed the toilet several times.
Across the hall from there to the small room full of taxidermied animals between Mt. Carmel and the sea. I found a lapwing, which Jack had mentioned yesterday, then we moved along.
We went outside to the big outside area and had most of our fun there. Carly mainly sat and read as she was having a headache. But August had all sorts of fun with pulleys and levers and water. He pulled a barrel up with pulleys, turned an Archimedes water screw, I lifted him in a big globe using a huge lever (then other kids came, and other guys helped lift all of them), then we walked up the stairs to the higher part. There we tried one of those pedal helicopters together. We went a few feet, but it was difficult with him on my lap. I tried the swing attached to a pendulum that demonstrates transfer of energy. Really quite cool but August wouldn’t try it. Then to the water area, where there were all sorts of different gates using wheels and screws and levers, etc. and ways of picking up the water. Carly came and caught up with us here.
August kept talking about wanting to go in the globe thing again, so we went back and he pulled a ship up a ramp using a pulley and went in the globe again.
Back inside we found the Leonardo da Vinci room, which is really cool. All sorts of machines using gears and screws. Then August’s favorite room, the sound room. He sang into an oscilloscope, listened to the humming tubes, played with the binary counting machine, etc. I tested his hearing on one machine and it seemed like he might not have heard the lowest notes. When I tried him on it again he said he wouldn’t tell me if he could hear it or not.
They went to the preschool area while I figured out the membership thing, then August wanted to go back to the sound room, so we took him back again. Played a bit more, then left about 1:45. The museum closed at 2 (as most of the big museums seem to close early every day, not just Friday).
We got to the car after 2. He had counted 7 cats by then. We regrouped, then tried to walk up to the Baha’i Gardens. Up and up and up we went. I carried the stroller and Carly walked with August, who at first wanted to only go sideways up the steps, one at a time (not alternating). So not a quick walk up. August was sort of reciting “Hickory dock” as we went. No idea where he would have heard that recently. Saw a playground that had a dragon for a stairway, and paused for a snack.
Got up to what looked like an entrance, but it was closed. So we headed down to the car. August was singing Ants Go Marching and came up with “Eight by eight …build some shapes.”
We were getting hungry, so as we got back down to Masada Street we took a right and after a block found Cafe HaPina. Our favorite cafe in Israel. Mainly because of the food (the squash quiche and the zucchini pancakes were both amazing) but also because the guy, when he found out we were from Seattle, started talking to me about music (Screaming Trees, Pavement, Fugazi, etc.). August and I did some Memrise, then he played on the iPad and Carly and I both read while we waited for our food. When we left we bought two chocolate raspberry muffins.
Walked back to the car and as we drove to the Bahá’í Gardens August had most of one. Obviously he loved that. We spotted an entrance to the gardens and parked and walked through the tunnel back to the entrance. It was now about 4:30, so we didn’t have long. Really nice spot though and August liked it. We saw the Shrine of the Bab through a fence. Walked over to an area with a bunch of cacti and taught August the difference between ‘cactus’ and ‘cacti’. At first he disagreed, but by the end he was practicing them out. We sat on the ground to take a photo of them and realized the rocks were crushed brick (August found letters on one piece) and very red. I took August to the bathroom and he was licking the dust off his fingers. Then I realized his shirt was rather red.
In the bathroom he was pressing (imaginary) numbers and (imaginary) ghosts were coming out after we pressed an (imaginary) hand thing like the one that flushed the toi
let at the museum.
On the way out Carly learned which areas of the garden you can walk on your own (three small parts) and where you need a tour (everything else).
We got back to the car, and as we unlocked it August was saying “Timmy the combat comet”. Which I think is a Timmy Time reference and we just weren’t getting the end part (and he was probably making something up). By the time we left his count was 12: 10 cats and 2 nice dogs (he’d decided that he’d count nice dogs – one had been in the cafe).
We were in the car at 5. Listened to the 12 Days of Christmas. He was singing along, then suddenly falling asleep. Got the iPad out and RelationShape kept him awake. He made it without falling asleep and we were home at 6:15.
Inside I asked what his favorite part was and he said “everything “ Carly was reading on her Kindle and he was highlighting big words and asking what they met: “destination…what’s that mean?” And words like prefabricated, occasional. He then asked her to read out loud.
He was tired after the long day. We got him ready for bed and I suggested he dream about the science center. He added “and monsters and ghosts”. I left just before 7 and he was soon asleep.