Kaleidoscope (Again)

Since it rained for forty days and forty nights, the pool wasn't much of an option. So we did what would normally be a winter sport for us: Kaleidoscope.



I know I've blogged about this place before, but it's so worth going. A couple of times a year minimum, even when your kids start to pretend they've outgrown it.



Tell them what I do: I'm thirty-seven and I haven't outgrown it. So get the pickle out of your butt and have fun.



Actually, Em saves her stiffest resistance for Wonderscope and the Nelson. The latter, I'm not sure how you outgrow an art gallery, but eleven-year-olds, they're the Lord's Own Private Mystery.



But how can you not dig shopping Crown Center? Or the Hallmark Visitor's Center. What's not to love about steel rule dies?



I did catch Em digging the ride when we were cruising the bubble elevators, waiting for our slot.





Plus, we ate chocolate for lunch. Well, sort of. We'd had a late breakfast, and when I realized how zoned in they both were on chocolate, my first impulse was to try to feed them a proper meal, a lunch with actual protein and possibly even fiber, first. But Em insisted she was not hungry, and my best efforts to trick Mo into saying 'yes' failed. She was not hungry, but she did want some chocolate.



I felt the same way myself, and rather than spend $20 or more that I don't have on a lunch I'd eat despite not needing it and that they'd both ignore on top of spending $8 on chocolate, I cut straight to the chocolate. We've watched them make fudge at this place three or four times, it's the first time I've caved and bought some of the very excellent (though somewhat pricey) candy.



We also checked out the Fun-2-3-4 exhibit. Among other things, they have a transmission geared by tens to illustrate the million thing. If you turn the wheel one million times, the end wheel will turn once. Don't wait under water, it takes a great effort just to make the 10,000's move perceptibly.




So then, after our Kaleidoscope session, when we were getting ready to leave, we hear music. A keyboard and baritone duet. I remember catching my buddy Karl doing a duet with Brian Harmon here umpteen years ago, before Karl heard he was free to go. I know the pianist's face, but I can't remember his name. We listened for a few tunes, standards such as Basin Street Blues. This cute little boy took an interest in the baritone and was humored. I gave the honyocks each a buck to put in the tip jar. I almost ended up making my living playing standards to not many people in the middle of a shopping mall, so I feel obligated to teach them about the tip jar.



I will say, though, the audience, such as it was, was much more respectful than the crowd at Jardine's was the other night. I mean, they were 90% indifferent to the music being played, but they weren't obnoxiously shouting over it.