San Francisco with Kids: The Exploratorium

The Exploratorium is a suggestion that EVERYONE makes when telling you about places to visit with kids, and when you go in, you'll realise why. It's like a Science Museum on steroids.. one day is barely enough to see it all. If you can avoid school holiday time, you might have an easier time of it, as when it's crowded you might end up waiting around a bit for popular exhibits as we did. But there's enough to experience that you can keep moving around and come back later to the ones you missed as well. The post is more of a photo tour, as I can't really do justice and describe the variety of stuff. You can find more details of the different spaces etc. at the link given on the first line.

This is an exhibit in the Colours and Light section (which is where most of my pics are from) that showed how perception makes the difference when viewing colours. I was curious to see if it would come through in photos as well:

What colour would you say that is? White?

The one on the left is the "white" one from the previous pic!

The rightmost one is the newest now.. 

The card in 2nd position is the one we saw in the first pic - dark grey if not black.
Pretty cool, especially for the kids.

Who doesn't want to make funny and colourful shadows if you get the chance. I was also part of the fun along with trying to click it ;).

This is what we looked like on a screen that detected our infrared radiation. The one with the black i.e. VERY COLD nose is me :P. Checked after a couple of hours spent inside and it was back to normal. You could also press your hands on some cold shapes and check out your "tattoos" on the screen.

On to a small room where everything was lit in monochromatic (yellow) light. It was fascinating to see how that drains out most colour. My blue jacket was dark grey, our shoes were drab, and this lovely rainbow looked absolutely washed out. Compare to the one just outside the room just below. The room also had small torches giving out white light that the kids could shine on things to see the difference that made. A box with jellybeans, a set of crayons, a painting of a landscape, were some of the examples in the room.

Monochromatic light

A similar one in normal white light

We'd seen this type of mirror before but it's always fun to go at it again. I was not going for Leonardo's Vitruvian Man symmetry, but that's what I managed to look like ;)

This one was titled Floater Theatre where we watched a BLANK WHITE SCREEN for a few minutes with a narrative playing alongside, with the floaters in our eye showing up and giving a performance based on how we moved them. Amazing use of something I always assumed was a minor irritation but otherwise never thought about.

The kids, especially D, were fascinated with this one

My post probably covers about 3-4% of the place, as most activities were hands-on and I was only clicking the occasional one. Do check it out if you are ever in San Francsisco, I am sure the kids will find it memorable.

Signing off with a lovely if slightly garbled pic of D and S with an even more shadowy me on the side..

B is for Baggage

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was surprised to find that baggage allowance on domestic flights in the U.S. might not be as generous as the international ones. Thanks to Southwest I think most of my worries are taken care of, but I would still need to check restrictions of weight and size before investing in some new baggage.

A kind friend on FB also suggested that I should pick out some unique colours so that I would easily be able to identify them on the luggage trolley - best real reason for buying colourful luggage that I've ever heard, and I'm taking full advantage of it ;). What do you think of this one?

For easy reference for other travelers, the baggage allowances are as follows:

Emirates Economy: 2 bags of up to 23 kg each (and yes, we're traveling with 4 tickets so I'm wondering what all I can bring back ;)).

Southwest Economy: 2 pieces of checked baggage allowed for free, each piece should weigh less than 50 lb (which is around 23 kg it seems), and should measure less than 62 inches (l+h+w) in dimensions. I'm guessing the common brands would adhere to these dimensions but might take a measuring tape to the store in any case ;).

Realized that I need to keep the carry on baggage dimensions in mind thanks to a hint from another kind friend on my first blog post. For Southwest, max dimensions are 10x16x24 inches, and for Emirates 7 kg and 115 cm (Wondering why they specifically mention travelers boarding from India - do we have a history of carrying over-large pieces :P?).

I don't think I've ever looked forward to luggage shopping this much ;).. hoping to be packed and organized by next week unlike my usual last minute self - Do you think I'll manage it?

A is for America ;) - Here we come!

After much temptation I decided to not take up an A-Z challenge that some fellow bloggers are doing in April, simply because I didn't think I could do it justice with a lot of other things going on in my head right now.

Wondering what the heading's all about considering I'm not doing the challenge ;) ? It's time for our next holiday, one full month and to the U.S of A. Since holiday planning is driving me a wee bit crazy, I thought I might as well start my own A-Z challenge revolving around the subject ;). Definitely won't reach the end of the alphabet before I leave on the 18th, but for as long as it lasts..

Here are the first steps I have been researching for what seems like weeks now, no wait - it really was weeks!!

Places to stay: There are some cities like New York where we don't know too many folks except for a few friends whom we didn't want to impose on. Other cities where there's family or really close friends that we're in touch with, I decided we'll be shameless and accept all welcoming offers ;). We are spending the first few days in Dallas with close family, so I am keeping fingers crossed that the kids will be over the jet lag issues by then.

Domestic flights: We are going to be criss-crossing the country quite a bit, so this is a big chunk of the decision making. I was taken aback to find that all those cheap fares that I saw on kayak.com while assessing the budget were not the cheapest after all, as most domestic carriers charge extra for check-in baggage (some like Spirit for carry-on baggage as well!). So after consultations with a cousin who is now based there and is the super-researching kind(You know who you are ;)), most domestic flights shall be with Southwest as they offer 2 pieces of check-in baggage for free, and give good rates as well. Cancelable flights for domestic travel - you can sorta forget about that it seems unless you want to spend a small fortune for that requirement :P.

So Step 1 is "more or less" taken care of with all hotel bookings done through expedia, and friends or families duly warned ;). Step 2 is still going on, hopefully should be done in a day or two. And then we go on to the plans of what we'll actually DO or SEE in those places! As is always the case when traveling with kids, these will have to planned with a lot of breathing space in between so as to not tire them out, though it is nice to be planning for an 8 and 6 year old rather than a 5 and 3 year old :).

Friends in the U.S. who read this, feel most free to chime in with suggestions of things to do and see :) !!!