Thursday, March 10, 2011

Item Number One - The Planetarium

Ever since I was a young terror I wanted to go to the Planetarium. My parents would always promise we would stop by next time we drove past it, only problem was by the time we finally got around to it the place had shut down. Let this be a lesson to all parents out there, this is exactly what happens when you don't take your kids to the place they want to go...They shut down and scare your kids FOREVER!! Yeah I had such a terrible childhood sniff sniff.

I guess after relaying my sob story to Maz (possibly more than once) she must have made a mental note because the first task arriving in an envelope with a big number one on it was a trip to the Planetarium. As an added bonus it also included free entry into Science Works and tickets to the lightening show.

The lightening show was the first item on the agenda and the first thing I noticed after walking through the door was that Maz and I where the only ones without kids trailing behind us. You wouldn't think it, but it was actually rather intimidating. The intimidation quickly got worse when I incorrectly answered a few questions under my breath which most of the kids in the room got right. That's right, I'm man enough to admit it, the 8 year old sitting next to me knew more about lightening and electro-magnetism than I did, and I've been electrocuted more than a few times.

Inside the Lightening Show

With the lightening show over we killed some time looking around science works. Although this place is aimed directly at kids it proved to be extremely entertaining and made short work of the couple of hours we had spare. Luckily my general gadget geek knowledge is pretty strong so I managed to avoid a rehash of the personal inadequacies discovered in the lightening show. As entertaining as everything is at Science Works the highlight had to be Sperm Racer. Racing a single sperm through a giant uterus just spells hours of family fun. Luckily Sperm Racer only consisted of 3 levels otherwise I would have been there all day.

With the spare time well wasted we joined the massive line for the Planetarium. Although the line was massive it did move pretty quickly and it did give me some extra time to perve... umm admire the Grace Park (Boomer from BSG) look-a-like. Though soon we were all seated in the Planetarium and after years of waiting I finally got to gaze upon the domed roof in all of its glory. Then as a swirling black hole appeared to move towards us I fell into some kind of nerd trance, watching the whole thing with a partially dropped jaw. Sadly if I wasn't lying back I may have even drooled slightly. It was definitely all I had hoped it would be.

Now this was definitely a great way to start the Thirty before 30 adventure. Maybe this won't be so scary after all... Or will it!