every day i'm shuttlin'

with both girls out of school for the week of thanksgiving, the hub and i decided to head out to l.a. to check out the recently-parked space shuttle at the california science center.  ordering our tickets online was easy, and we got there with plenty of time to spare.

of course, there was an assload of people there with the same idea.  there were giant groups of kids on field trips with their schools (turns out not every district is lucky enough to have the whole week off), tons of out-of-towners, and locals like us looking for something to do.  while we were happy to avoid that long line for tickets outside, once we entered the building it was clear we'd still have a lot of waiting around to do.  despite the fact that our reserved time was already displayed on the entrance sign, we still had to join the super long line of folks with timed tickets in their hot little hands.

so while the hub stood there working from his virtual office (i.e., his iPhone), we checked out all the space-y stuff around us.

he hadn't moved but about a foot ahead of where we'd left him, so we headed off into other sections of the museum.

then when i checked my phone to make sure the hub wasn't trying to reach us to come back in line, i realized we had pretty much zero reception in there.  oops.  luckily, he hadn't gone on ahead without us.  we finally got to the front of the line, where we were given black poker chips in exchange for our paper tickets.

after we trotted our happy asses into the building, we came upon an exhibit of shuttle-related memorabilia.  the bean was drawn to this...the space potty.

stuff that astronauts have brought on their space travels.

a faux command center.  actually, i think this is part of a real one that was dismantled and brought here for display.

a cool shot from when the shuttle was driven through local streets to the museum.  i'd really wanted to go and see it for myself, but we never made it.  besides, crowds pretty much suck.

at the door that led to where we'd finally get to see the shuttle, we exchanged our black chips for purple ones.  kind of a fun way to make sure people were really where they were supposed to be, i suppose.

and then, finally...ta-da!

this dude brought some serious equipment.  geez.

guess what?  shuttle butt!

this shot of the bean gazing up at the shuttle in awe would've been so much more effective without the grumpy-looking lady in the background.

of course, there was plenty of nasa-themed souvenir stuff available for sale.

we grabbed a little lunch before heading back inside to check out the rest of the exhibits.

wind machine!

more silliness.

checking out the sea critters and the divers inside the tank.

wall o'ice.

all done.

you know you wanna go now, don'tcha?