I'm sure part of the reason we're lagging is because we went to Brain Candy Live with Adam Savage and Michael Stevens last night and we were up later than usual. It's totally okay though. All throughout the show the kids were fully engaged and were practically bouncing in their seats! Today they all woke up inspired and have been reliving moments and describing things they want "to try at home"...You know what I call that? Quality entertainment and worth every penny.
Basically, "Brain Candy Live" celebrates makers and science, and gets people excited about questions like "Why?" and "How?" and "What would happen if...?" When education becomes fun, the whole world opens up and the possibilities are endless! My kids loved the demonstrations and explanations of why things behave the way they do. It was great and I'm so glad we went!
The next show we'd love to see is the "Alton Brown- East Your Science Tour" but we leave just before he gets here. So if you know him, be sure to ask him to add a few shows in the Northeast before we leave..... You will? Thanks! We're big fans! ;-)
Last Saturday we drove to Sarasota just to see what was there. We stopped for gas at one point and saw pickled sausage and eggs on the counter. No, we didn't try them. So if you have and can tell me about them, please do! I'm curious. I tried Kool-Aid Pickles when we were in Alaska but since I hate sweet pickles, they weren't for me. Perhaps these are worth a second look?
Sarasota was very tropical and reminded me a lot of the Keys. Here are a few pictures we took while driving around.
The water was very blue!
This house was in the process of being built. The whole area was impressive.
The nearby town we stopped in for lunch was filled with shops and restaurants with patios like this one. We ate things like conch fritters (pronounced konk), mango salad, and the kids enjoyed non-alcoholic pina coladas. Everything was delicious! The conch fritters are like a small crab cake or hush puppy (fried round cornmeal fritter), but instead, diced bits of conch are added to the mixture. Conch has a similar texture to calamari. They're white and firm. The fritters were good. Even the kids liked them.
You can find statues everywhere in the Sarasota area.
Near Sarasota we also saw a manatee habitat. Manatees are large endangered marine mammals who are native to Florida and warmer waters. We saw manatee habitats in the Everglades and Weeki Wachee Springs, as well, but never saw any in the wild. So we did a little digging and found out that you can find them at the aquarium in The Seas exhibit at Epcot, which is only 20 minutes from us! How could we possibly have missed this for so long?!
Yesterday we made a point to stop and see these amazing creatures. Now we can cross seeing manatees in real life off the checklist! They are so much bigger than I thought they'd be. Almost like a baby Hippo...
I wonder if one of them is named Barbara?
Look at that tail. I bet it's powerful even though they like to swim slowly.
Their eyes look grey and small, which is different from what we're used to seeing in other animals.
This week we'll be tying up loose ends so we're ready to leave for Maine in a few weeks. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for the drive up.... I guess we'll see!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
- Jen
No comments:
Post a Comment