Day Three: Zoo, EMP, SFM, PSC, and dinner with Bloggy Friend!

Alrighty. The Last Day. The culmination. The Busiest Day Ever.
For those of you reading the title and going, "So, um, that's a lot of letters..." all those letters stand for:
EMP - Experience Music Project
SFM - Science Fiction Museum
PSC - Pacific Science Center
Zoo - Um...the zoo...
And I think the bloggy friend bit is pretty clear too. :)

Well, we got up and started the day at Cyndy's House of Pancakes, which was pretty good. I had some excellent potato pancakes. After a good breakfast, we headed to the Zoo. It's a nice zoo, and we had a good time, and I have lots of photos of lots of critters, so here are a few selections.

The ever-popular flamingo. I'm convinced that every zoo has flamingos at the entrance, lol. I've been to three zoos and all of them have flamingos right inside the gate. Maybe it's zoo code for "Look, we're exotic!"

Giant spiderweb in the Discovery Loop at the zoo. This is probably my worst nightmare. And I really *don't* want to see the spider that sits in that web. NO thank you.
Turtle shells in the Discovery Loop. Not real ones of course, but still fun. I think this might have been the hardest I laughed all day. Who knew being a turtle could be so much fun?

A really pretty momma giraffe. She was like...10 feet in front of me. It was amazing. Her baby was next to her, but kept wandering away before I could get a picture.

And the King himself. Clearly proud of himself. And well he should be, he's a gorgeous lion.

After the zoo we headed over to the City Center, which holds all three of the EMP, SFM, and PSC. First stop, the EMP. This was the thing I was most excited about. I've heard really great things from folks who have gone, and I was really wanting to go. The others didn't really find it interesting, so I wound up going through all three by myself so I wasn't holding them back and also wasn't rushed. Let me just say, I really enjoyed it and could totally spend another day going through. The EMP has so much information and stories, I could sit in the story room all day listening to all the little personal recounts by all these amazing influential people. Not a whole heck of a lot to take pictures of though, but here are a few.

This is the guitar Jimi Hendrix played the Star Spangled Banner on at Woodstock in 1969. Awesome huh? There was a whole exhibit just for Jimi Hendrix which was all pretty cool.

There was this little display of Michael Jackson's infamous black jacket and white sequined glove.

This was a really freaking awesome sculpture in the middle of the EMP that stretched through two stories. This photo is from the top looking down. It has over 700 instruments, forty of which were custom made. It's really kinda phenomenal.

Right off the EMP is the SFM. It was really awesome and totally nerdy. I enjoyed every minute of it. I actually took a lot of photos of books and things that I want to read or look into (nerd!), but here are some things I think anyone can appreciate.

I'm not a trekkie, but even I was kind impressed with the famous Chair.

Le Zombie. A French (surprise!) publication about zombies (double surprise!). No real significance here, just kinda made me laugh. :) Oh, and this is way back from the 1940s.

R2D2! I love this little guy. I mean really, who knew that a sidekick who only spoke in beeps and clicks could be so charming and funny? (Pre Wall-E, of course.)

A Klingon mask. Again, I'm no trekkie, but I thought some folks might think it's neat.

Yoda! I heart Yoda. My favorite character ever he is.

After a couple hours exploring the previous venues, I wandered on over to the PSC. I was actually really excited about this, because they had an animation exhibit by Cartoon Network, and I am a nerd for animation. Nerd as in I want it to be my job.

This is one of only a few pictures I took at the animation exhibit for a couple reasons. It was really geared as a kids exhibit which is not really good for picture-taking. Most of it was hands-on (and freaking awesome....once I waited for all the kids to get out of the way. And yes, I did wait in line behind 5 year olds, just in case anyone was wondering) and these hands-on exhibits were kinda not really picture worthy. Fun, but nothing really to look at, you know? And the other big reason, it's a kids exhibit. There are TONS of kids. I don't want to look like a creeper. LOL. I felt creepy enough waiting my turn to make a stop motion cel.

After that I went upstairs to a Chris Jordan exhibit, which was really mind blowing. Unfortunately photos weren't allowed, so I was a good patron and put my camera in my purse. (And FYI, girl with disposable camera, I saw you taking pictures with your FLAH of the printed artwork. One, they told you no and it's on an honesty system. That is not honest. Two, flash photography causes quicker deterioration of artwork. Boo on you.) But if you guys are interested at all, please go check out his website. The exhibit I saw was Running the Numbers, and it totally blew my mind.

After those I wandered over to a place that had some general fun science exhibits. Also full of children. Man, I'm not that old, but I felt like a big ol' dork wandering around and playing with all these kid exhibits by myself, lol. It was fun though. I don't regret it a bit.

This is a tree that is 626 years old. Pretty freaking amazing. And I can fit inside of that with plenty of room to spare.

The automated dino exhibit. I didn't know when I walked into it that they were automated, and lets just say I got quite a surprise to walk in and find that not only looking at me, but bending down to take a closer peek. Yikes.

Then there was a bug exhibit. I didn't really want to take pictures of bugs, I mean I see them enough on a daily basis. But this guy was a GIANT praying mantis that moved. And I like praying mantises (?) so you know, ok. Picture time.

Then we were all off to have dinner with bloggy friend Alexis! We went to the Outback Steakhouse that was right near our hotel. She and her two adorable boys drove over to see us and it was awesome! She's even more awesome in person than you'd think, lol. We had a great time, even though it was brief. I'm so glad we had the chance to get together though! Next visit Alexis promises dinner at her house, which I totally accept! Can't wait!

A group shot of all of us (sans Grandma) that the waitress kindly took.

Me and Alexis. We kinda look alike, no? :)

As you can see, we had a pretty full agenda! All in all, it was a really great trip, we had a lot of fun, and I can't wait to go visit again!

Phew! That wore me right out! Well, now I guess I'm back to Real Life posts. Not nearly as exciting, but c'est la vie. :) Until next time!

PS - I just read through this post to check for errors, and deleted FIVE extraneous "lols." I have a problem. Someone smack me. Sheesh.