Our Trip to UWM - pt 3

The university brags that the planetarium shows often sell out, and they encourage you to arrive at least a half hour in advance. Well, after failing to find food we headed over to the science building and waited. And waited. Finally someone showed up to sell tickets, 20 minutes before the show, and we were first in line. But with so much time left I bought the kids some snacks from a vending machine and we headed outside.







Now I don't remember that statue from my years on campus, but of course I could be mistaken. But if I'm right, it's in a sorry state, with chips missing and some of the concrete showing significant wear. Which, as I write this, probably invalidates my memory, no?

Anyhow, the kids held it together.





And YaYa even designed some smiley faces out of stones. Hey, it was a LONG WAIT.



Soon enough it was time for the show.



The professor in charge asked me how I'd learned of the show, and I told her my father had brought me when I was a kid. (I remember listening to Eddie Murphy's Party all the Time and Starship's We Built this City on the way to campus.)

The show itself was nothing to brag about. It was mainly a lecture, with the actual 'stargazing' limited to ten minutes at best. WTF? I noted my complaint on the survey form, but the important thing was the kids held it together for the hour - heck, YaYa even raised her hand and answered a question about constellations.

One great moment tho': when the lights did go down and the stars come out, LuLu gasped and said "Daddy it's beautiful!"

When we got out of the planetarium it was dark, and I drove around looking for a place to eat at least near campus. We eventually settled on a kitchy hamburger joint that has a branch near us.

The kids were tired at this point and ornery, and this was *not* a pleasant meal.





But the food was good . . .



Until I picked up LuLu's last chicken nugget and tore a piece off for myself. It was raw inside. Not 'half-cooked'. RAW. Like, "I just killed and gutted the chicken two minutes ago raw." I of course brought it to the attention of the staff, who reimbursed me the cost of the nuggets and later brought an ice cream sundae out for us.

They were fawning over us, but I set the manager straight: barring Lulu getting sick, this was the last they'd hear from me, so long as the cook would be reprimanded and trained. He agreed and at one point got on his knees to ask forgiveness of my daughter, which was WAAAYYY over the top.

She never had so much as a tummy-ache, by the way.

That ended our night. It was a nice ride home (with the girls singing songs from summer camp) and then on to bed.

A very nice day indeed.