Normally, we try to time our big vacations for the end of the summer. That started when Sawyer was little, and I wanted him to be as old as possible for his first trip to the beach. And it's just sort of worked out that most of our travels … the beach or camping … have occurred in late summer.
Except this year.
We had our big hurrah over Memorial Day weekend with our trip to Pennsylvania. Despite one camping trip to see Thomas at Tweetsie, we haven't done much else. It's been so much harder with my new schedule than I imagined. And I hate going places when it's crowded, which means pretty much any weekend.
Since we haven't had any bigger trips planned, I've been trying to take Sawyer on some smaller daylong outings to places close by. I realized recently that we hadn't been to the science center in awhile, and I should get some use out of my annual passes.
We drove over to the science center one Saturday afternoon. It was just after lunch, and I knew the place would be packed, but I had promised we'd go. When we turned into the parking lot, my distaste for crowds swelled. The lot was totally full and there were cars camped on on every row ... lurking, waiting for a spot to open up. I told Sawyer we'd have to come back another day. He was disappointed, but I softened the blow with ice cream.
To combat the crowd, I decided to try a Sunday morning. Maybe people would be at church and we could sneak in before it go too crazy.
Luckily, my plan worked!
We got up early enough to be there right as the science center opened, and there were very few people. We'd pretty much already seen everything, except the new Shipwrecked exhibit on pirates, ocean voyages and shipwrecks (duh). Sawyer was a little bored in parts, but most of it was cool.
We visited our favorite spot: the Sciquarium, where we got to see a diver demonstration in the water. He answered questions through an intercom system and then scrubbed down the faux coral. I told Sawyer that his daddy and I got to swim with sharks and other fish in a suit like that when we went scuba diving, and he was pretty impressed. He said he wants to do that when he gets bigger.
Then we walked through the outdoor animal exhibits. The animals were far more active than usual, maybe because it was a cooler day. They're usually lying around like they're bored to death. Today, the gibbons were swinging from the ropes.
After a couple hours, we had seen it all and we managed to escape without being bombarded by people. The lot was full when we left, so I was extra glad we'd made the effort to beat the rush.
I could stand going a lot more often if it was like this every time.
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