Anchorage tries really hard to be one of those places where everyone wants to live. Mostly because for 8 months out of the year, people are reminded by the cold, snow, and dark that it's probably not where they want to be. Kids' day here is the break-out session for thousands of unruly children and their parents who suffered through the long winter with them; in other words, the police, army, and fire crews break out into teams to test their battle-preparations and new riot gear.
Bentley and I (Dad) had the chance to partake in this extravaganza. Our first stop of the day was to go to the flight museum out at Lake Hood (the floatplane base at the airport). We detoured on the way to pick up Opa, as he was nearby ... and dad had forgotten the camera. While Bentley was initially agreeable to picking up Opa, Bentley was sure that he had been decieved when we turned off International Airport road to go to Opa's house. My backseat driver yelled and pointed for me, as though I were a foreign cab driver, "Uh-uh NO - ME - fly!", assuring me that he knew a better route. Despite our flag stop, this was the only real unhappiness to the day, I'm happy to say.
None of us had been to the airport museum, but I had heard good things about it. Surprisingly, it's a few hangers of reclaimed (not repaired) aircraft, a few donations from Uncle Ted, and some nice displays regarding war efforts. I particularly enjoyed the large section commemorating the Royal Canadian Air Force and their efforts to protect Alaska during WWII. In any case, Bentley and I took the time to fly the flight simulator (we plan to get one for home practice soon), and he seemed to enjoy the model aircraft roughly the size that he could play with at home. In other words, the full size planes hanging from the ceiling and the helicopters in the 4th hangar just weren't that exciting from a 2 year old's perspective. Bentley did seem to enjoy watching a few planes land and take off on Lake Hood, especially since they still had their skis on. Opa had us check out the small planes parked nearby, and then it was time to drop Opa off and proceed downtown.
Bentley was really hoping to see the firetrucks and go check out their equipment downtown parked next to Grandpa Tim's office. You may have read about a previous run-in with the ladder-truck before. Unfortunately, someone decided to call the fire department and they had to go away with their sirens on just as we were pulling up. Forge ahead we did, and we still got to see a fancy military forklift and four wheeler. I'm not sure what they were doing, but it was exciting to see them move around a pallet of bricks. Well, that's what Bentley said.
The other military exhibit was the Ordnance Response team from Elmendorf AFB. Actually, this was pretty cool. They had the anti-bomb robot out, and a mannequin dressed up in full chemical weapon garb. Little kids (7-12) could put on the full body armor for the munitions disposal team, and get their picture taken. So, 5 more years, and maybe we can do that again. In any case, we learned that mannequins are scary, anti-bomb robots are cool, and the soldiers really like the chance to play with the kids.
Stopping in at the Egan Center with about 6,000 other children and their parents, we checked out just two booths: the Mad Scientist exhibit, where there were the coolest bubble displays, and the booth for the Natural History museum. The lady said the Natural History museum would be free for the day, and that they had dinosaurs, including a T-Rex head. So, we decided to head to mountainview. Since we missed out on the firetrucks, I thought I should do my part and make it up to Bentley.
Just down the hill from downtown is the railroad depot. We drove up and down the rail lines on Post road, looked for heavy equipment, and saw all sorts of COOL stuff. It wasn't long before we were checking out dinosaurs, stuffed Alaskan animals, and a variety of animalia and skeletons, though.
Bentley wasn't so sure about the T-Rex when I pointed out how big his teeth were compared to my head, and the mountain goat was super freaky, but for some reason the wolves were great and the two full-size dinosaur skeletons were of interest. The Eagle and Owls were pretty neat too. Bentley did NOT like: the bear cub, the lion, the human-skeleton, the hawk, the cave-bear, the musk ox (zoo incident), the caribou, and the sea monsters. Oddly, the goat seemed to make the lasting impression, as that was the one animal he told everyone about in the evening.
After 4 fun hours of looking at exhibits, equipment, planes, and trains, we decided to take another hour and check out the animals at the pet store. I think Bentley really likes the colorful birds. Puppies are funny, fish make him curious, gerbils/hamsters/mice just aren't as great as they seem to be in the books, but birds... you don't leave the bird section until he's ready.
So went Kids Day 2008. Next year I think I'll take a stroller... and maybe we'll find the firetrucks FIRST. This was definitely better than a rainy day at the Fair!
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