Discovering the Discovery Museum!

Hi everybody!
It's me, Julien the Toddler!
On Thursday May 19, I went to the Discovery Museum in Sausalito with Zealand. DOJ and Chelsea (Zealand's mommy) drove us there, and we got to sit in the back seat of the vehicle, each of us in our car seats. It was very fun because we chatted and laughed a lot together while our parents did the hard work of driving us.
I've never been to the Discovery Museum, but it's pretty amazing. It's a lot bigger than The Randall Museum, where I've also had a lot of fun. There are several rooms with fun exhibits, as well as a great outdoor area with fun stuff.

Here I am in The Marine Room. I'm not sure if it's actually called The Marine Room, but it has a lot of marine theme fun, as well as a big train display. You can see me on a boat, ringing a bell. The boat is so realistic that it even rocks, so we feel like we're on the water, even though this boat is inside a room.

Zealand was also on the boat, and we chased each other. First he chased me, but later I chased him. We have a lot of fun running in circles.

Here we are in a fun tunnel that's very marine themed! The tunnel is tall enough so that we could actually run if we wanted - and there is also an aquarium that we admired in this picture. DOJ had a tougher time in the tunnel, because he could only crawl - he's so tall that he couldn't stand and run in it the way we can.

I had a lot of fun pretending to be a seafood purveyor.

I even got to help unload crab and lobster from a net!
After the Marine room, we actually went to other parts of the Discovery Museum. I got to have fun and get wet in the Wave room, which is very scientific - there was a lot of focus on water waves. Then I had fun in an outdoor waterfall area, where I got really wet. It was a sunny day so I didn't need to change out of my wet clothes right away.
We also ran into Tatum (and her brother Landon and their mommy Melissa), who is in our playgroup. We all ran about in the room with faux lily pads, which were so bouncy - it was just like being on a water bed. Or maybe it *was* a water bed, but floor level.
There was also a ramp where I could race trucks, but that will be another blog post.
We ended our visit (which lasted about 3 or so hours) in the Discovery Museum Shop, which has a nice train table. Actually there are 2 train tables! So Zealand and I got to play with the trains. You may notice that I'm wearing a different outfit, and it was nice and dry.

Zealand and I have a lot of fun together, but sometimes with the trains we have fun playing near each other but we'll be doing different things.

Trains are pretty amazing.

Hopefully this train table will encourage my parents to make enhancements with our current train set up at home!
Anyway overall I really loved going to The Discovery Museum with Zealand, and I look forward to returning there, with Zealand or other friends, or just with either or both of my parents. It's a very fun place.
Thank you so much Zealand for introducing this gem to me.
Love,
Julien the Toddler

Friday October 22 in New York City

Hi everybody!
On Friday October 22, we had a fun active day! We decided to take a cruise to the Statue of Liberty! We stay on the boat the whole time, but we get to see the Statue from the boat. The boat ride was about 90 minutes total, which worked out great since there were still other things we wanted to do. We took a taxi to Pier 96, where the boat departed. We've found that it's actually easier (and not much more expensive) to take taxis throughout New York City when we're not going on a straight bus route, especially with my stroller.

Here we are at Pier 96, by the Hudson. We arrived early so got some time to take pictures.

I had a great seat on the boat.

The boat was slow enough so that we could admire the lovely New York City architecture.

There are some fun modern skyscrapers! And they're more fun to see when you're outside than inside them.

Here are Mommy and DOJ in front of the Statue of Liberty.

Here I am in front of the Statue of Liberty. Yes it's true - I was sleeping at this time!

After the boat cruise, we strolled along 9th Street, before heading to the MUJI store by the NYT building - it's also near Penn Station, so I think it's at 41st by 8th Street. At MUJI, my parents shopped while I got to walk along the long ramp. I was practicing my walking and running.

After MUJI, we strolled through Times Square and headed to the Japanese tonkatsu restaurant Katsu-Hama. They have 2 locations, and we went to the one that's on the 2nd floor, on 57th Street. My parents used to go to the one on 45th Street. In this picture, I'm sitting on a booster seat, because they didn't have high chairs. And this is the FIRST TIME I've ever sat on a booster seat at a restaurant, without any strap support. I guess I'm growing up!

I enjoyed reading my book and drinking milk. But I also ate a lot of rice. Because of the distractions from reading and dining, I also dropped a lot of rice on the ground! DOJ sure was busy cleaning up the table after we ate.
After dinner, we took a taxi home and I had some good slumber!
Love,
Julien the Baby