Flashes of Panic

My brother and I took my nieces to the Boston Children’s Museum yesterday, along with every other parent of children between the ages of 3 and 8 in the Boston area (and, if my nieces are any indication, much of the rest of the region.) It was mobbed.

I’m not sure the girls learned much, but they had a good time. Quite a few of the exhibits, unfortunately, were the worse for wear, or had poor user interface. For example, the “Boats Afloat” section had a pretend harbor boat with a video screen over the helm showing voyages around Boston harbor. There were buttons to shift the videos between different vessels: a tour boat leaving from the Museum of Science, a lobster boat, a water taxi, etc. But the kids didn’t latch on to that; they just hammered on the buttons in succession, looking for something to light up. I think the buttons were disabled, at that, and the videos on a predetermined loop. Weird.

We also discovered that a potentially expensive loop through the museum store can be avoided by a trip through the Recycle store on the second floor.

And, I think I was the only one at the Sarah Harmer show Friday night whose hand-stamp at the door was applied on top of an Arthur stamp from the Children’s Museum.

Now Playing: Pendulums from All of Our Names by Sarah Harmer