Thursday we went to the Health Museum. It was very cool! First we went through the “Grossology” exhibit – which was totally gross. They had a gigantic nose that you could walk inside, a huge intestine slide that went from the stomach to the…um…exit, a walk in eye ball, exhibits about why we fart, why we burp, the smells our bodies make, etc. It was very educational – stuff that no one talks about! I think even Matt and I learned some stuff. They also had a life size Operation game – which I found especially entertaining, since Operation was one of my favorite games as a kid!
After we’d been sufficiently grossed out when went across the hall to “You: The Exhibit”. It was so cool – every exhibit was interactive. Some took your picture – one aged you 20 and 40 years and showed what you’d look like if you smoked, had sun damage to your skin or became obese. Another let you change your photograph to see what you would look like if you were a different race or gender, or both! They had a height predictor, a Dance Dance Revolution game, an internal organ imaging area and lots of other stuff. My two favorite things were “The Mirror of Heredity” – which asked you a series of questions, then told you how unique you were based on your answers. I was, of course, completely unique J. So was Tessa.
My other favorite was a measure of brain activity. Two people strapped a headband that had electrodes on it around their forehead. There was a long plastic tube on the table with a small metal ball in the middle. When the game started each player was supposed to relax as much as possible, think about nothing, make their brain waves as small as they could. The ball would roll toward the person with the least brain activity. Waves were also shown on a computer screen in front of each player. When the ball reached stopped at one end that person won.
Matt beat me – hands down – quite a few times. Then I decided to change it up – make it so I couldn’t lose – and we went the opposite way. Both of us tried to think as much as possible, spike our brain waves and make the ball roll away, instead of toward, us.
He beat me again at that, though! My brain waves didn’t show much difference between the two exercises, actually. They stayed at a medium level whether I was concentrating on not thinking, or trying to think a lot. Matt’s, on the other hand were dead on the bottom when we was supposed to be relaxing (in fact, after it was over he said “maybe next time you ask me what I’m thinking and I say ‘nothing’ you’ll believe me!”) and spiking like crazy when he was thinking.
That’s all we did at The Health Museum. When we got back to the hotel we took the kids swimming for bit – no drowning incidents this time! Then we decided to go to the Galleria Mall – just down the street from our hotel – to see if we could find something Texas themed for Matt’s dad for Fathers Day.
We’d driven by the mall a hundred times, and it definitely looked big, and we knew it was supposed to be kind of a big deal, but we still figured we could get in and out in under an hour and get the kids back to go to bed on time.
It dwarfed any mall I’ve ever been in – by far.
After we got home I looked it up online, because I was so impressed by the size, and found out that it was the 4th largest mall in the world when it was built, and it’s expanded since then. It had over 2.5 million square feet of retail space. Not to mention an ice skating rink, 4 dozen restaurants and 2 hotels!
Even more impressive than the size were the stores. They had all the big department stores, of course. Saks, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Neimen Marcus.
Plus dozens of stores I’ve never seen in person before! Louis Vuitton, Kate Spade, Bottega Veneta, Gucci, Fendi, Coach, Carolina Herrera, True Religion, Ferragamo, Versace, Cartier, Tiffany and Co…
It would have been far too easy to spend a fortune in no time flat in that mall.
When we first walked in we saw a Crazy 8 store. I’ve been to their website a million times, but I’d never seen any of their stuff in person, so we stopped in there and I picked a bunch of stuff out for Tessa. After that we found one of two gift shops and looked for a gift for Jesse. We found a couple things we liked, but nothing wonderful, so we decided to check out the other shop. At this point the mall didn’t look all that massive. As we walked, though, we started to realize just how huge it was. First of all, the floor we were on – which had been the ground floor when we started – suddenly became the 3rd floor, with two levels below us and one more above. Second, it became apparent that there were several wings to the mall that were easily as big as our entire mall back home. We passed a Limited, and I had to go inside. I have fond memories of the Limited…my dad once brought me back a gift for my Birthday from a Limited he went to when he was on a business trip. I think I was 10. When I was about 12 we got a Limited at a local mall, but most of the clothes were far too grown up for me at that age. They pulled out of the mall before I was 15, so I never really got to shop there. Anytime we’re on vacation I shop at the Limited. Anyway, I wanted to look around, so Matt took the kids to find the gift shop and I stayed. They had a darling dress in the window, but none in my size, so I didn’t even try anything on. I took off to find Matt, walking quickly, so I didn’t miss him. The gift shop was miles away, it seemed like, and by the time I got there my little family had come and gone. So I turned around and hightailed it back. They weren’t at the Limited, either, though. I walked back and forth for a while, feeling like an idiot because I was sure they were looking for me and I didn’t even have my cell phone on me – then they showed up. Turns out all they’d done was walk to the gift shop, look around for one minute, and head back. But, since Matt had the stroller he had to wait for elevators, (not to mention a tired 6 year old) they were much slower than I was.
Anyway, we decided that was enough shopping for one afternoon, since the trip that was supposed to take less than an hour had already taken close to two, and headed out.
Back at the hotel I made Macaroni and Cheese for the kids and Matt bathed them. Then he ran out to get some dinner for he and I while I got Asher to bed and set Tessa up with a movie. By the time he got back Asher was asleep and Tessa was watching her movie and coloring. We ate in bed and watched the So You Think You Can Dance results show, then read until we fell asleep.
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