more body talk

we spent the last weekday of the bean's christmas break heading out to the california science center with tickets to the body worlds exhibit courtesy of one of the hub's friends.  they were dated and timed, so although the old lady was really interested in seeing the exhibit, work kept her from coming along.  bummer.

i was a little apprehensive about this outing, knowing that the exhibit consists of real human bodies in all shapes and sizes, shown both in sickness and in health.  i get pretty squeamish about stuff like that, but i knew it would be fascinating and educational and so i just sucked it up and went with the flow.  if you're like me in any way, you may not want to look at the pictures i'll be sharing here.  there, you've been warned.

i was extra glad that we'd had a chance to discuss bodies and body parts and stuff like that beforehand, because the bean didn't flinch when we got inside and started checking things out.

along with full bodies, there were lots of display cases containing examples of different body parts.  as i'd figured, it was a good mix of interesting and squicky at the same time.

the bodies were placed in all sorts of different poses, and the ones with eyeballs were a little freaky.

when we reached the end of the room we received these tickets from a museum staffer so that we could go upstairs to continue our tour.

upstairs there was more of the same, just moving through the rest of the body that hadn't already been covered in the first room.

throughout the exhibit there were lots of placards like this that gave some basic facts about different diseases and disorders and issues.

this part led the bean to pull her daddy aside and ask him to cut down on the cigars (and to his credit, he has done exactly that, by a pretty big margin).

there was a pretty interesting photo exhibit of typical families in various countries around the world showing them with a month's worth (or it could have been a week, i really don't remember) of their groceries.  it was really interesting to see the differences.

this is the digestive tract.  when stretched out, it can reach up to 30 feet in length.  crazy, huh?

i was pretty confused by the 007 poster until the hub pointed out that the bodies sitting around the poker table were featured in a scene from one of the movies.

more bodies in different poses.

we reached the last section of the exhibit that was walled off from the general viewing area, and when we stepped inside the staffer explained why - the reproductive system was explained there, along with bodies shown having sex.  while this was after "the" talk i'd had with the bean, none of us were ready for it to be shown in graphic detail like that.  this elicited a snicker from all of us, though:

the last part was an interactive poster where guests were invited to share something that they wanted to accomplish before they die.  the bean went over and added "become a disney animator" while i stood back and smirked at a few of the other entries.  i think my favorite was a drawing of a potato.  so random.

 although we've seen it before, we headed over to see the space shuttle.  because we could.

hello kitty is errrrrywhere.

we went outside and looked at something we hadn't seen the last time - the gigantic fuel tank.

the bean wanted to check out a few of the other rooms, and we got to see the divers who went in to feed the fish.

we hightailed it outta there not too long afterwards, knowing we'd be dealing with a good amount of traffic on the way home on a friday afternoon.  on our way out we caught sight of the coliseum, where they were setting up for the rams football playoff game the next day.

and if i hadn't already known it before, now i'm completely certain that i'd never survive in any sort of medical-related career.  heh.