San Jose Children's Museum

For our first day out after our arrival in California we decided on the Children's Museum in downtown San Jose (southern end of the San Francisco Bay area). One reason for staying indoors was the awful weather on our arrival - wet and cold. But I also think some of us were jet-lagged and not functioning properly. Anyway, Max needed company of his peers after putting up with Grandpa and Mummy for 24 hours and being tied an aeroplane sea. Moreover, it was a good spot to take Ella, who was very interested in her surroundings. The blokes went to that destination by tram and the girls - Emily, Rebecca and Ella - went by car. We couldn't all travel by car as the baby seat takes up a lot of room and the car had only 5 slots for the six of us.

Max greatly enjoyed his time at the museum, which was tailor made for kids his age with a scientific or artistic bent. The first two pictures show Max dusting off Mammoth bones covered in sand - he's being a Palaeo-ontologist; and the third shows his creative side admired by cousin Ella and Aunt Emily.Ella is also watching him in the second of these photos.

The next three photos show Max (a) making an impression ... of his hand, (b) trying to place a spinning disk on a revolving platform ... to see how well it remains upright and wanders across the platform's smooth surface, and (c) plucking strings against a revolving cylinder ... watched by his mother and Aunt..

The Museum was strong on fossil bones and had wonderful displays about woolly Mammoths - including a partly complete skeleton pieced together.

All told it was a good day out. This was finished off by a visit to the Great Mall of America, also in down-town San Jose. The prices seemed so low given that $A1 now purchases $US1.05!

AS