Houstontown

Granny made arrangements to visit one of her cousins who lives in Houston, so the whole family decided to drive her down and spend some time in a few of our favorite (and sorely missed) spots in the city. One of the places which we used to frequent was the Children's Museum, which -- once its hundred million dollar capital campaign ended, just as we left town -- has transformed itself. Sometimes these sorts of reinvention change the essential qualities of a place, but the Museum has managed to retain its charming character while becoming larger and richer. The new areas, including an invention spot, a three-story climbing structure, and an outdoors waterworks, are really remarkable. On the whole, the exhibits and interactives are more compelling, the programs wider-ranging, and the design more inventive.

After an hour and a half, Jennifer and Casper drove Granny for her visit, and Gwendolyn, Linus, and I stayed for another two hours investigating the galleries. I had to bodily drag Linus from the place, and only convinced Gwennie to leave with the promise of dinner. (All that exploring is hungry work.)

The Flow Works may have been the neatest new addition to the Museum. It started raining while we were out, but we had already gotten wet playing in the water -- making waves, opening dams, examining Archimedes' screws.

No matter whether it's pipes or blocks -- it's all building.

This is Linus's typical look of concentration. I should mention that the invention gallery had two giant troughs of legos, which had Linus cooing in excitement. It was also outfitted with two racing ramps, one of which had a jump. We sat opposite a French father and son and an English family, each of us making cars to try send down the ramp and over the leap. Gwennie's fragile car managed to make it without breaking, Linus's triplet cars went down the ramp together, and my caterpillar car almost made it to the end of the line.

Does anyone know when Gwendolyn became such a proficient climber? She made it all the way along the rock wall, stretching and pulling herself along like half a spider. She also slithered with her brother through the disc structure faster than I could climb the stairs to the top.