Family Fun Night

Each year, the MDI BioLab (which is about a 3 minute drive away from our house) hosts a Family Fun Night. It's free and open to the public, obviously, since Mike doesn't work there and we still go! 

They have a small shark tank and a touch tank with all sorts of crustaceans and mollusks in it. That's always a hit. You know, I don't know for certain how long this event has been going on, but I vaguely remember going to it one year as a kid. I remember standing in what seemed like a huge line for the touch tank (which now doesn't make any sense because it's a big tank and there's never a line there--ah well, my childhood memories sometimes seem more like dreams) behind a girl with the sharpest Achilles tendons I've ever seen. 

So, pictures? Here you go: 

I guess the sun was in her eyes, but here is Madie wearing a "worm hat." 

The different labs put up booths all around the courtyard and you can go around to find out what they study and how. Most of them have microscopes set up so you can see the tiny creatures they use in detail. They have some sort of craft or game and sometimes prizes. A friend of ours runs a lab there using worms to study genetics. His interns put together a sort of treasure hunt for the kids to learn a little about it, and at the end they could choose a treasure. We scored two free tickets to Reel Pizza! So we saw Minions last night for Family Night.

Finn saw a kid at the touch tank with a worm hat and turned to me and said, "I want a worm hat." That was the first booth he went to. They handed me one for him and it wouldn't fit over his head, so his is custom. Yeah, that's right. We're elitists here. No pin-heads allowed.

I always thought sea urchins stung, and I guess some of them do, but according to the young man behind this booth, not in North America. I have lived on islands for 13 years of my 28 and I never knew this. I also had never noticed their little tube feet coming out, but these were performing beautifully. Neither of the kids would hold one. (Madie is holding a sand dollar.)