ScienceWorks!

We managed to fit one more day trip into March, and that was to Science Works.

This one was a trip the children were looking forward to as they knew it would be the last one for a while.

The morning we were to leave Michael suddenly asked, 'Are the trains still free' to which I say, 'the announcement was they would be free for March, just like access to certain entertainments in Melbourne would be free in March for Morwell and surround peoples to get away from the smoke.'

Michael says, 'yes, but the fire is 'out' now, so maybe the trains aren't free any more.'

One phone call confirmed his concern. The trains were no longer free. To get us into Melbourne we had to cough up $36. Not a whole lot in the grand scheme of things but right then, the only money we had left at all was in the savings I had made to desex the two cats. (everything else, including the years school fee savings, had been spent when the car had unexpectedly cost over $500 to fix on its last visit to the mechanic).

Now, this was not a trip we could post pone of back out of. It was IMPORTANT. So out of the cat savings came the train travel cost, with me grumbling about it all the way.

Getting to Science Works was easy. Two and a half hours rain ride into Melbourne, then change trains and another fifteen or twenty minutes to North Melbourne, and then a two block walk and we were there! Starving I might add! The first thing we did after registering ourselves was make a bee line to the area we were allowed to eat in, and open out lunch boxes!

When everyone had been sated we made our way back inside and the exploring began!

Here you can see Daddy and Eli exploring the planets and the Solar System,

 We had to wait in line for this, but this game was a virtual game, where you had to stand within a certain spot, and choose your armour, and then reach out and grab or kick or head but the diamonds, and you had to get as many diamonds as you could in a certain amount of time.
Here is Malachi,

 Hadassah,

 Phebe,

 And even Daddy and Eli got a go!

 This is a contraption that forced a ball through the plastic tunnels with air,

 A car of the future! (not big enough for our family methinks)

 This is a hovering devise that raised and lowered itself when you put your hand over a certain point and raised and lowered it.

 Building your dream house,

 Seeing how much money your worth (I was poverty stricken :/ )

 Moving the ball through the maze,

 This game was like pool, but with a slide for the ball instead of sticks. Malachi was really good at it.

 This game you had to walk the legs across the maze, only letting the coloured feet touch the corresponding coloured foot prints,

 

Playing with the monkey (I cannot remember the purpose of this game)

Letting two balls go at the same time and seeing which ones reaches the bottom soonest,

Playing with shapes,

Building with big soft blocks,

Lining up sites,

Building your own virtual car,

Seeing what its like inside a space station,

And of course C3PO was there ;)

Playing around with the echosystem,

This experiment was awesome. As far as I understand it you press the button and pressure builds up under the ball till in finally explodes up the shoot. But it didn't seem to have a set amount of minutes or seconds till the explosion happened,

Melbourne made from Lego,

All these buckets were the same weight, but the experiment was to show how different pulley systems made the weight easier to lift,

And this one was to show how bricks were lifted in the olden days,

Eli played here for ages. You could make all sorts of things by sticking the sticks in the holes of the cylinders,

This room was full of crazy mirrors and wooden noise makers,

And this is the Penny-farthing bike.Everyone had a go on it,

And this is the Little Yarra, a replica of the boat, which entertained everyone for some time,

A small section devoted to bugs and small creatures,

And as we were on our way to the last exhibit, we crossed a walkway that was above the bottom level with a clear view,

The final stop was like a doll house, where you could dress or undress the wall figures as per how you feel they would be attired in the  environment they were situated in,

AND! This was the view from the window!

Homeward bound, a mere three hours after we had arrived, and my small wee child was tuckered out. He slept almost all the way home,

However everyone else was full of beans!