Birthday at OMSI

The kids had Friday off so we decided to go to OMSI for the day. I had won a year's family pass from the radio station and had not yet activated it. Mark took the day off and came with us. We really had a great time. We saw two planetarium shows, Cosmic Collisions and U2; The Dome Experience. Those were great. The annual Rock and Gem show was going on there as well. We were able to see some neat rocks and gems. We watched a man polishing a sphere and a lady faceting a gem. The current exhibit is Da Vinci: The Genius. I don't know why I thought the real Mona Lisa would be there, but I did. It of course was not. It was fun to see his notes and ideas. He truly was a genius.

They also have a US Submarine that you can take a 45 minute walking tour of. This is the first time we have done that and it was really neat. We got to look through the periscope and see the boats on the water. They have real torpedoes on board. A fact that John found to be "really awesome". She is the USS Bluebird. They Navy still owns her and if she was needed, she could be sea ready in a year or less. She was one of the subs used in the filming of Hunt for Red October.

We all had a wonderful time at OMSI. We did of course do all the standard things there are to do at OMSI. Good thing we get to go whenever we want this year. The kids really have a blast. This is video of Alison in the Room of Mirrors that Da Vinci designed. She had a blast! I think her birthday present will be mirrored closet doors.