Natural rain and history

Both boys were off school today, and since I don't have Wednesday classes, I was, too. Since Aaron was working from home today, we left to give him some quiet and distraction-free time. We went the the Natural History Museum of L.A. County (which A.J. kept calling the National History Museum). A few of the big exhibits are closed, as they are doing a major renovation project. So, no dinosaur exhibit, but there were a few skeletons spread in other areas that were open. Levi breezed through most of the exhibits so fast I had to tell him several times to slow down. We did get to watch some scientists working on newly collected fossils, and the boys liked that a lot. A.J. says his favorite part was "digging" for fossils in the discovery center. I think Levi liked a dinosaur presentation done by some of the docents, one of which was dressed as a very convincing dinosaur. The also had a deep-sea fish that washed up at the marine station where I do my research. It was sort of eel-like, but much bigger. I think my favorite was the gem and mineral room. The had several huge blue topaz stones. They were gorgeous. Most of the minerals were raw and unpolished, though they did have one small room of polished gems that were lovely. I actually liked the unpolished stuff better. Some of them were absolutely brilliant colors.

We've also had a fair amount of rain today. Not pansy California rain, either. Californians like to say it's raining as long as there is ANY water falling from the sky. What the rest of the country either doesn't acknowledge or calls drizzle, Californians whip out the umbrella or don't go out at all. We didn't really have downpours, but it was certainly enough to get you pretty wet between your car and the store. Happily, the traffic wasn't too bad. I've seen worse for less rain.