A Whiz-Kid's Playground in Berkeley, California: Lawrence Hall of Science

I squeezed in, trying to fit between my mom and brother under the red umbrella. It was a rainy day in Berkeley. Our family decided to go to the Lawrence Hall of Science to learn something new. We hurried over to the lab grounds, only to be greeted by a whale!

 It was a plastic whale, though life size. Anyways, we walked into the Museum and saw a vast annex with already a few exhibits peeking out. I and my brother snuck off and went to some displays of the Lawrence Hall of Science’s history, while our parents went to registration to get us all checked in.

 I explained to my brother the history, for he was confused with all the words. Finally, our parents were done. Then, we looked at was nearest to us—a cloud maker! Apparently, the cloud maker had subatomic particles come into contact with water vapor, creating mini-clouds! Then, something caught my eye. I saw a kid training some sort of launcher on a target, and shot an airplane at it! I dragged my brother over to it and showed him. Then, we set to work building our own.

When I was a little kid, I spent countless hours making paper airplanes. Now, it was a matter of retention. My brother followed the instructions on the table, while I tried to make a javelin plane. Soon, it was time to test them.

My brother eagerly put his in, forgetting to aim and that there was a button to push to launch, and it fell off it, half a foot from the starting point! I was more cautious, and it flew a considerable distance. After much more of this, our parents called us downstairs.

Now, we went to the Planetarium and began to watch a show asking a thought-provoking question: How Big is the Universe? The “director” showed us countless constellations and stars as if we were looking up from Earth. Then he tackled the question. He zoomed out of our view until we were at the edge of the known universe. It was amazing! It also made us all seem that we were living on a tiny moist rock speeding around a burning ball, one of the billions of stars in our galaxy, among billions of others of galaxies in our universe. Which was true, by the way.

Then, we looked around the Design Quest chamber. We made rockets, fans, and tons of other gadgets. I eventually got bored and left to see some exhibits while my brother built things. Then, we took a lunch break. Our time was almost done here, and we had one more thing to watch—a movie. Then, my dad checked his phone. It was 5 minutes to 2:30! We scrambled to our feet, chugging water and stuffing blueberries into our mouths as we sped down the corridor to the theater. We made it just in time! 
What was odd, was that there were only 2 other people watching the movie with us. So much for losing our seats, I thought. Then the film started. The film was about life in the Arctic. It was way overrated. It was dull and uninteresting. By the time it was over, it was time to go. We made our way back to the entrance, taking photos as we went.

I enjoyed the Lawrence Hall of Science. We saw many exhibits and had a fun time learning about things. Although the movie was substandard, I am looking forward to going there next time, and hopefully with a better movie!