and Tactile Dome :D
Mood: teehee :D TOFU
Today: Tactile Dooome!
I set five alarms for 7:30-7:50, but ended up oversleeping anyways. We were about ten minutes late.
Exploratorium was fun! Usually when I go, I spent a lot of time upstairs. Today we stayed together and plowed through the first floor exhibit by exhibit. I think I can safely say we were all greatly amused by the spinning table and the disks.
Lunch was good. The pasta tasted fine, but it kept falling apart. I got way too much, so I gave most of my salad to Brandon.
The Tactile Dome was amazing, hands down. You really don’t know what to expect until you’ve turned the first corner, and all the light is gone and you’re alone with your remaining senses. Without sight, my sense of touch was my best guide to explore the tunnels, and my voice and ears were my ties to my group.
I was with Allison and Brandon - we worked through each room together and plowed through fairly quickly the first time. We met up with the other groups quite often, the eight or nine other times we went back through. At the end we all when through the whole thing backwards. Climbing up the slides is harder than it sounds, especially if you can’t get a grip.
The best part was the highest room, a sort of circular tent with raised cushions all around. For me, and for every other of our group wearing dark colors, it was all too easy to climb up and disappear into the shadows, waiting jump onto the head of the next person who ducked out of the tunnel. At one point, all eleven of us were sitting around that circle all at once. It would have been a great picture, but unfortunately any cameras in the group had been left at the entrance with our bags and shoes.
Just as well. Part of the moment was being able to see each one of us in that circle without sight.
There was the most random stuff on the walls, among them a doll (apparently without a head), a baby toy, a music box, a shoe, chains, fuzz, and at the end there was a room full of sections of foam tubes.
Going through the whole thing blind was actually more exciting than scary. I suppose it would be a different case if there wasn’t only one possible path and nothing lurking by to eat your face. But I didn’t so much as hesitate to get down on all fours and plunge into the dome., the result being that I crashed into walls (also Brandon and Allison) a couple of times. At home, I’m perfectly used to crawling/sliding up and down stairs, as well as prowling about in the dark late at night.
After we left the Exploratorium, we decided against going to Sodini’s. Instead we took bus to the Metreon, played some arcade games there (the usual - DDR, portable PS2, Quad singing in a rock band with Raymond on one of the guitars…!), and went to Mel’s for dinner. Their chicken soup is so good, lol.
:) Great to see you people again, and also great to meet Vikki. It’s wonderful to know that I don’t have to feel so sad about leaving, because in a few days I’ll be seeing you guys again.