OKC July 2023 Part 2 of 2

Sunday, July 30th was a stay at home day, playing games and eating in. The weather was still blisteringly hot so this was a good decision. Jeremy zotted over to the dojo to pick up Autumn from her sleepover after her highly-welcomed breakfast of donuts. Even physically fit martial art students enjoy the sweet pleasures of life.

Autumn painted and assembled a 3-D wooden craft kit of an octopus I had brought along in my suitcase. She was so engrossed and did it with such independence. I felt proud of her and also of my success in gift selection for her.

Throughout the day we played games. Isaiah took major interest in the Go Fish and Uno card games.

As well as Go Fish and Uno, Autumn enjoyed playing Quirkle with us, a tile game of matching shapes and colors. Later her mom Robin joined us, too.

For dinner we had home-cooked turkey chili which Autumn and Isaiah made. They browned the ground meat under Jeremy's supervision and added three different kinds of beans. Jeremy gave them free rein to choose which spices to add; they sprinkled them in independently. The resulting chili was excellent and extremely tasty, even for me who is not a fan of turkey.

In the evening, after dinner, Robin, Jeremy, Frank, and I played El Dorado, a card deck building game which Frank and I have played with them before, on previous visits. Each player travels over a terrain of jungle, waterways, or dessert with the tools of machetes, oars, or coins. I guess I gained no wisdom from prior experience because, of the four of us, I came in dead last. I did not have the foresight, or knowledge of game strategy to build my deck of cards with what was needed to be successful in the future, instead of instant gratification of the moment. Hence, I sadly got left behind.

On Monday, July 31st, once inside the Science Museum Oklahoma,  Autumn and Isaiah headed straight for the play structure within CurioCity immediately off to the right of the museum lobby. This elaborate multi-level playground is good for delivering at least 30-45 minutes of parents and grandparents sit-on-their-butt-and-rest-and-observe time.

Around the play structure are other fascinating hands-on curiosities. There is device that for lack of a better name I call the ball popper. A tight fitting bowling ball sized "eyeball"  is manually raised via kid power (or grandpa power) within a narrow clearance tube. A basket at the far end is filled with small lightweight balls. When the "eyeball" is dropped, the air pressure pops the little balls up into the air, even as high as the ceiling depending on how many small balls are loaded in the basket. Fewer balls cause higher flights. Not one to just observe, this intrigued Frank. He would raise the "eyeball" repeatedly as long as kid power gathered up all those small balls and reloaded the basket. 

Wending our way through CurioCity we came upon a bed of nails. First a "victim" crawls into a replica of a wagon as would be in a gypsy caravan and  lies flat on a thick plate of plastic. The jury is still out on whether, with the punch of a button, the plate lowers or the nails rise up from within a grid of holes in the plate. Either way there is definition a sensation throughout the victim's body when contacted with the nails. Autumn tried it out first, convincing us it was a weird sensation that we had to experience.

I tried next and it did tickle in a weird way. The nails did not poke into the back of my head but when they were retracted I did feel a bit dizzy for some unknown reason.

Frank was a bit reluctant to do it but succumbed to pleas of, "Please Grandpa...". Fitting his 6'4" frame within the confines caravan wagon was a bit tricky but with some scooting and shuffling, he managed. He did not find the nails pleasurable.

What I experienced as a bit of dizziness, hit Frank like a ton of bricks as full on vertigo. There was a line of kids waiting to use the attraction so Frank could not just continue to lie there. Robin supported him and led him slowly hand-in-hand to a the nearest restroom. He went in and entered a stall only to be confronted with a child height toilet. He made do and emerged 10 minutes or so later, mostly recovered, and only needing to sit and rest a bit. This was when all of us took time out from exploring to have a snack. 

Isaiah had seen a balloon artist in another part of the museum and we went there for him to get a sword and shield made for him. He was so thrilled with them.

There was a display with a pendulum to illustrate resonance. By flinging out a magnet on a string, attaching it to the pendulum drum, drawing and releasing the pendulum toward and away from you, you could substantially increase the amplitude of its swing. Frank and the kids played with this for quite a while.

This piece of artwork of a bird in the palm of a hand drew me in. It is an ode to the art of creativity. Normally a science museum caters to the logical left side of the brain. This structure called to the more artistic right side of the brain. I enjoyed its uniqueness and message. Be sure to peek inside. 

The remnants of creativity are carelessly strewn in the little creator's haste to make tangible from the intangible.

This model of a streamlined electric locomotive built for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), in the northeastern United States is called a GG1. It brought back strong memories for Frank as he exclaimed his nickname for it, "a GuggaUnity"! Frank routinely rode passenger cars drawn by one of these back and forth between Philadelphia, PA and Washington, DC in his college days at Saint Joseph's University. Per Wikipedia about the Pennsylvania GG1 class 

The GG1 entered service with the PRR in 1935 and later ran on successor railroads Penn Central, Conrail, and Amtrak. The last GG1 was retired by New Jersey Transit in 1983. Most have been scrapped, but 16 are in museums.

Look closely at the next photo and see the letters A.T.&S.F which stands for Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. There is a song on YouTube about this rail line.

Frank truly enjoyed looking at this train layout and more especially so when his grandkids joined him.

Frank and Robin pose near a model of a roundhouse.

Robin took a picture of Frank and me with Autumn and Isaiah before leaving the museum.

On the way home we stopped at GameStop to let Isaiah pick out a promised birthday present for his recent July birthday. Seeing what my grandkids picked, pointed out to me the wisdom to letting them pick out their own gifts since I do not have a clue what they like as they get older.

He picked several Minecraft blind boxes where a treasure is hidden inside a boulder of sorts, and the fun is in digging it out to find the surprise.

Autumn selected a Disney dance game for an X-box that has popular tunes from Disney movies such songs from Descendants including “Evil like Me” and “Rotten to the Core”.

Robin had had the foresight to put a pork roast in the slow cooker before we left for the museum. We had a juicy, delicious meal waiting for us when we returned from a long, but exhausting, day of fun.

Tuesday, August 1st we said goodbye to the kids in the morning. Shortly after lunch Robin took Frank and me to the airport. We had a 4:30 pm flight that left pretty much on time and took us via a connecting flight through Phoenix home to Oakland airport arriving 8:00 pm. Both Frank and I caught some decent naps on the first leg. The second leg had a poor baby who cried pitifully, (actually screamed, probably painfully), the whole way. I felt so bad for him and his mom but thankfully most passengers were understanding and many tried to be helpful. It was so nice to see the patience and goodness come out of people. A small blessing was that the flight was on time.

Overall, we'd had a great trip and were pleased to have seen the grandkids in their own environment and to have learned their own interests. We were, however, glad to be back on home turf. We walked out the door of the airport terminal to a blast of cold air and cool breezes. Oh, what a relief from the 100℉+ temperatures we had cooked through in Oklahoma! Never the less, we would not hesitate to make the trip again ... though perhaps we would plan better than to visit in July.