King Tut's Treasures

Today Ben had an appointment to get his G-tube replaced.  This wasn't out of some disaster, but a quarterly equipment change; they wear out after a while, so they should be changed every 3 or 4 months.  The fit for the unit was a little snug, so it was a little uncomfortable to get out, but with a little lube and some painkilling goo, the nurse was able to remove it and get the new one in with his assistance.  The next time we do this, around October, we will be able to do this at home.

After the doctor visit, since we were in Seattle anyway, we decided to get some lunch and then go to the Seattle Science Center.  Kelly had been thinking about getting a membership there again.  Although they don't change out most of their displays, there are some things that are worth looking at again and again, and new IMAX films to see as well as other exhibits.  While we were there, we also looked into the possibility of going to see the King Tut exhibit that is going on now, not thinking that we'd have a shot of seeing it today (I figured they were sold out for days/weeks/months), but they had openings for the middle of the afternoon.  We chose a 3:30 slot for the five of us (at a discounted rate for members!) and went about finding things to do for an hour or so until it was time to start the tour.

I love this...I like to think of this as Hagrid's dining table.  Just needs some rock cakes and buckets of brandy and tea.

The butterfly house is always a huge hit--it's hot and humid in there, which is what the butterflies really like, but it's so worth it to see these gorgeous, delicate creatures.  One of them was really taken with Kelly's jacket.  One of the wings was damaged, so you can see the outside of the butterfly--brown and grey for hiding in the trees, and the inside--bright blue, perfect for hiding on Boeing jackets.  I think he liked the color in order to use it as camouflage!  It stayed on there for several minutes and several of the other patrons thought it was really cool.

We also spent some time looking at the honey bees, a display which has a tunnel linked to the outside so the bees can go collect pollen and bring it back to this plexiglass hive.  We spent several minutes trying to see if we could find the queen.  I thought I had, and then Kelly found another one that looked like it could be a queen, too.  Two queens?  That doesn't usually work, does it?  I don't know enough about bees.

And so, in no particular order, I will post a few of my favorite images of the King Tut display.  I don't know if the museum has a policy about posting images of the stuff in the collection, but they didn't have a problem with photography (as long as you didn't use a flash), so I can't imagine that there would be a problem with posting my images anywhere I see fit.  I will say that it is TOTALLY worth the $20 per adult to see it in person (this is the discounted rate for the annual membership at $100 per family...admission is a little more for non-members), and I plan on going back (sans enfants) to see it again.  My friend, Bekah, really wants to go see it as often as possible, so I know I have a standing date to go again.

We headed over toward the IMAX theater first to see the Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs film.  It's a 40 minute movie about some of the history of the Pharaohs and the tombs in Egypt, who discovered the tomb where many of the Pharaohs had been stored, hidden from various thieves and grave robbers during those lean years.  It was sometime around 1880, and their recovery of the mummies some believe were part of a master plan by the gods since the cave collapsed a few years later, which would have destroyed all the remains and they would likely have been lost forever.  More recently, they have been trying to figure out the ancient methods of mummification--an art that was lost centuries ago--and the studies they have been doing on their DNA.  Oddly, the focus of the studies has been to find out more about diseases then to help us find cures for diseases today.  Not sure about that theory...but anyway...

Ben picked out a book from Half-Price Books several months ago about Egypt, mummies, and pharaohs, and of course, he's been hearing Bible stories about Egypt and its history, so he was really looking forward to seeing this exhibit since he heard about it coming to Seattle.  He couldn't quite grasp the concept of it never coming to North America again.
"Why can't they bring it back?"
"Because the pieces are very old and fragile."
"But they could wrap them up really carefully."
"They did...but things sometimes still get broken."
"But what if..."
These conversations go on for a long time.  Sometimes you just can't convince him that there are reasons that things cannot be done.  I assured him, however, that they will be in a museum in Egypt and he can go there to see them and a LOT more stuff, including the pyramids, when he's older.

So, then the exciting part.  After the film, we got in line to see the exhibit.  They ushered us into an entryway for another short video--this one was about five minutes.  Ben was particularly excited when he heard that the video intro was being narrated by Harrison Ford.  "He plays Indiana Jones!" Yes, Ben.  Yes, he does.  And Indiana Jones is an archaeologist and spent some time in Egypt.  Yes.  He wants to be an archaeologist now.

He went around the various rooms reading everything.  He was fascinated.  They had a few rules about photography; one being no flashes, which is common.  Another was that you were not allowed to pose alongside the items.  I'm not sure what that is about, but I suppose it's kinda tacky to be smiling next to a 3,000 statue of a dead Pharaoh.  However, I couldn't help it if I wanted to take a picture of this piece and my son just happened to be standing in front of it, reading the details.

Other than having to hang on tight to him, he was very well behaved and soaked it all in.  Emma zipped through it and feigned interest in the whole trip.  Afterwards, we asked her if that was interesting and she shrugged--we take that as a teenage "yes".  Cammie went through somewhat quickly, but came back to look at things again.  She was having a lot of difficulty reading the signs (and I can understand why--I can't pronounce several of the Pharaohs' names), so I was helping her understand what the pieces were and how old they were.  It was absolutely fascinating!

Afterwards we struggled to get out of Seattle (it was 5:00 when we emerged from the viewing...it certainly didn't seem like 90 minutes!) as we were driving home with everyone else who was leaving work at the same time.  I hopped on Aurora Ave (with extreme difficulty) and found it was much faster and smoother than getting on I-5 with the rest of the population.  We went to a restaurant called Ram, which was a brew pub type place with steaks and seafood and a kids menu.  Kelly and I both ordered the peppercorn sirloin with Gorgonzola, and it was phenomenal!  Emma got salmon (her other standby after cheeseburgers), and the other two had fish-n-chips.  Drive home, medication done, bathed, bed.

Overall, a really good day!