Hi All,

Today started out pretty mellow. We slept late - okay 8:45 am, but that is late compared to our previous days! It was some much needed rest all around. We then blindly headed for Starbucks figuring there'd be at least one between the hotel and the Monorail that we planned to take to the Pacific Science Center. Sure enough we passed one. It was cute, 2 big Coffees and 10 little hot chocolates! The monorail trip to the Seattle Center was pretty cool, it was the first train type trip for many of them. We spent hours exploring the Pacific Science Center.

There were lots of hands on experiments for the kida to do, things like shooting water cannons to make simple machines do work, making mirror images, light up lightbulbs with bicycle power, grip strength tests, tests for the senses (smelling/ eyesight...) plus there were neat exhibits: the mole rat colony, mechanical dinosaurs, solar system models and a planet scale, plus - our top 3 favorites the Butterfly house (lucky Isaiah and Mrs. Kushin got to have butterflies actually land on them), the Shadow Wall (a special wall made of phosphorescent paint that imprinted our shadows on the wall everytime a big flash went off), and the space ship ride. Their least favorite part was the quiz I gave them toward the end. Okay, it was more of a scavenger hunt for information that those who were paying attention, reading and exploring didn't have trouble with - except maybe the part where someone in their team had to hold an insect for 5 seconds. The Madagascar hissing cockroach was cool!

As we were walking over toward the Experience Music Project, we got sidetracked by an Arcade and bumper cars and ended up missing the EMP. So we started walking back toward the monorail to head back to the hotel when we noticed a DUCK! We ran across the street (safely of course) to get to it. The kids at first had no idea why a big bus would be in the shape of a boat with a big duck painted on it until I mentioned that it could drive on land and also drive in the water. There was a resounding yes vote to take a tour, so we did. It was pretty cool, the guide rocked. Literally, loud music, jokes, and the tour of the city was great. We saw some places we couldn't have seen otherwise (Grey's Anatomy hospital, Frasiers Bar/ coffee shop, the Sleepless in Seattle boat house, stadiums, AND some of what we think are the Alaska Crab Fishing Boats!?! (Pathfinder, Siberian Sea, Pacific Monarch, & Horizon).On the way home we passed Old Navy sale signs so we stopped in, and the kids got some more of their clothes shopping done.

We took lots of pictures today, so this is a three part email since I don't know if parent emails can accept all the pics at once. Tomorrow's schedule will be a bit revised. We will be going to the Woodland Park Zoo which has been highly recommended (apparently only 4 of the 12 of us have been to a zoo before), then trying again for the EMP, and ending up at the Fun Forest amusement park.

Til Tomorrow, Mrs. Kushin and the kids