10th Annual Space Day Celebration, believe it or not

Morning!  

Ripley's Believe It or Not is a special exhibit at the Air & Space museum that only lasts until the end of the month.  It is just 5$ more that the usual ticket price.  I knew that Elle would love all of the strange facts.  She was so excited about her first trip to a museum.  

It just so happened that today was the Air & Space museum's 10th annual space day celebration, which was totally free with the price of the ticket.  Before we even walked through the door we looked through a solar telescope at prominences on the sun.  It was spectacular.  

This is the first time that Ripley's exhibit has been to San Diego since 1935.  

Robert Ripley traveled around the world collecting amazing, strange. amusing, wonderful things.  

You need a microscope to view the Buzz Aldrin sculpture in the eye of this needle.  

Pull up, Elle!

After Ripleys we got to partake in all of the space day activities.  They walked on 'moon shoes'.     

They got to see the color that different ions become in an excited state.  

They observed what happens when you mix liquid nitrogen and soap bubbles.  

Garret Reisman was a guest speaker at the event.  He was a NASA astronaut who took part in two spaceflight missions, completed two spacewalks (logging 14 hours outside in space), spent 95 days the International Space Station, and is hilarious (he was on the Colbert Report while living on the Space Station).  He joked about how if you spend 100 days in space you get a patch.  He begged Mission Control to let him orbit around Earth a few more times, but they insisted he came home right then.  He wants everyone to know he is NOT bitter about it at all.  

It was a hot day in San Diego.  We cooled off with some Dippin' Dots,  

and also in the fountain.   

The flowers in the botanical garden are always incredible, but most of them were a blur as Ruby was in charge of our pace.  

Apparently hanging out on the grass, with all of their toys from Space Day, was 'the best'.  I was exhausted and tried my best to stay awake even though a nap was sounding really good.  What a day!