Padden • Mindport • Rocket Doughnuts - Playday in B'ham!

What a Great Saturday! We had nothing mandatory on the schedule today, the new house is looking pretty well put together. Sure there's stuff we need to get done, but nothing we absolutely had to do today, so we made it a super fun play day! The boys let us sleep in a little, I made pancakes for breakfast and we had a nice lazy morning. Then we packed up Juno (the dog) and headed to Lake Padden to let her play in the dog park there. The place was pretty busy, with a lot of big dogs so she was a little overwhelmed by the pack, but she's used to big dogs and held her own pretty well. It was a beautifully warm day out for January, and we even had some sunshine! After Juno was done playing, Kai and Shen got to play on the climbing structure and run around in the main park. Now that we had all had some good outdoor playtime, we headed back home to drop off the dog and get some lunch before heading downtown to visit Mindport.

It's kind of hard to explain Mindport. We used to take Cam and Ben there all the time when they were younger, but we haven't been there in years, and Kai and Shen had never been before. It's kind of like a science museum, but it's more like an interactive art gallery. The exhibits feature many different science principles, but they are so beautifully designed and presented that they truly are art. While there are high-tech electronics featured in many of the pieces, most presentations are designed of wood and other natural materials. I was pleased to find that many of my favorite pieces from when we were last there years ago are still just as beautiful and fun to play with. Kai could have spent the whole time just playing in the stream of water. Shen was fascinated by the floating ping-pong balls. Tina and I both enjoyed watching the two of them explore the space.

When we were finally able to pull the boys away, we walked down the street for a doughnut at Rocket Doughnuts. This is another great little Bellingham spot, which I'm embarrassed to say we had never been to before. We are pretty hardcore fan's of Lafeen doughnuts which was very close to our old house, and while I still love Lafeen's, Rocket makes an excellent doughnut and a great cup of coffee!