Fun with kids

If you have younguns, here's something fun to do. Take them to the Children's Museum in downtown San Jose. We went yesterday with Chris and her daughter, whom son adores to no end. When we arrived, we noticed a Teletica 7 van parked next to a Bailando por un Sueño (Dancing for a Dream) van out front of the national auditorium (next door to but actually part of the museum). Here I have to make a side note: If you haven't seen Bailando por un Sueño, you're really missing out! It's sort of like, as esposo explains it, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition meets Dancing with the Stars. There are local celebrities paired with ordinary, local people (the "dreamers") who are dancing to make their dream (usually some hard-luck story) come true. In its first season, the show earned the nickname Bailando me da Sueño (Dancing Makes Me Tired), because it seemed to go on forever, with changing rules, couples who had been voted out getting a chance to come back, and on into what seemed like infinity.

Anyway.

I asked the guard yesterday what was up, and he said the auditions were being held . I begged to go in and watch them, because, you know, how cool would that have been?, but I got the big Costa Rican no-with-a-smile. Oh well. Esposo took a picture of son in front of the van anyway, and here he is in his typical "I'm looking at you through binoculars" pose:

The kids had a lot of fun at the museum. The place pretty much covers everything kids ever wanted to know about most anything (except sex, perhaps): the solar system, the planet, Costa Rica's history, the rainforest, how a radio station works, the human body, a farm, what airplanes and helicopters and trains are like, ancient Egypt, music and sound, etc. etc. We spent about three hours there and still didn't see everything. There is also an art gallery attached, as well as the national auditorium. As the Children's Museum is the site of a former prison, you can still see some of the old prison cells, along with a prisoner's drawing of Our Lord on the wall of the now-women's bathroom. Some of the prison cells have been turned into government offices, and I thought that was weird (and I certainly wouldn't like to work in a converted prison cell), but Chris thought that was about right for a Civil Service job. heh heh...

Here are some highlights of the museum:

In Costa Rica, even the fake ant farm is Catholic...

A support pole on this model of the human body was rather unfortunately placed.

Ok, yes, there were other photos, but they all had the kids in them. I still feel a bit uneasy about putting photos of my kid (and certainly other people's kids) on my blog. At least photos where the kids are recognizable (re: above picture). So I guess you'll have to trust me when I say that if you have kids, this is a great place to take them! Admission was 600/child, 1100/adult, and the best times to go are during the weekdays when Costa Rican kids are in school. Just watch out for the school groups.