I was so thankful the boys slept late the next morning. Technically they went to bed before 10pm our time which isn't too bad. And normal wake up time is anywhere between 6 and 8 (9-11 East Coast). My fear was they'd automatically reset themselves and be up at 6am East Coast time. My master plan was to keep them on West Coast time for the duration of the trip so that we could all enjoy the late night events ahead of us. So far so good, although it was very tricky keeping track of both time schedules!
We got up late, called for a cab and headed out to the museum. I think Howie has watched too many Amazing Race shows with bad cab drivers, cause he wasn't too happy with ours. Granted, the guy didn't even acknowlege we told him where we were going, he was on the phone and just drove, and someone told us it was within walking distance and he was getting on the freeway, so we weren't sure what was going on.
But we got there, and it definitely was not within walking distance.
This place was really cool. I love going to Children's Museums. They are all full of fun creative things for kids to see and do. We walked in and this was the first thing that caught our eye. (Actually it was the bubble machine that Brody darted for, but that was only the gift shop.) Luke LOVES to climb in the car and "drive." He gets quite upset that he can't actually drive. We have to tell him that we don't make those rules, the police make those rules and they say he is safer in his carseat. This was the perfect place for him to drive! You can see they had a real car for the kids to climb in!
This monorail was actually hanging over the edge of the second floor. You could safely get on it but when you looked out the windows you could see the "city" below. 
The lower floor was a whole little neighborhood: Barber shop, McDonald's on the corner, the mail truck driving through...this was a little house complete with a dog run for pets and an entrance to the grocery store next door.
After our shopping trip we headed into McDonald's to order up some chicken nuggets...
to which this kid responded, "I don't think I have any of those."
We headed over to the "train station" which was a quiet hall with benches to have a snack. We toured the train area which was more for older kids interested in the history of trains. The only thing the boys liked doing in there was playing with the toy trains and running the slanted walkway. Further on down was a Alice in Wonderland section. There was a maze of walls and bushes to walk through, a hallway that got smaller and smaller as you walked it, and flamingos statues throughout that you could manuver as your croquette mallet!
There were a lot of good places for toddlers to play. Within the Alice in Wonderland section was a Nursery Rhyme play area. The boat in the middle moved up and down when you turned the wheel. The boys loved playing on that. Luke was at the helm saying, "arrr...I a pirate." (Which he says at home sometimes too. Where they get these things, I'm not sure.) The funny thing was, this other kid kept jumping off the bow as if he were walking the plank!
Both the boys LOVE music. They had a whole music section with a piano you could walk on,
and all kinds of instruments in the forest. This tree had insturments attached to strings. Each string you pulled made a different sound.
We bought a couple of hot dogs for lunch then headed back to the hotel for naps. Thanks for the fun day Jon and Pam!
We got a really cool cab driver on the way home who took us on a mini tour past the "Rocky Steps" and through the city. Both the boys were asleep in my lap before we got home. Moving them from cab to crib is almost impossible. Howie got Brody up successfully, but I didn't make it with Luke. Instead we watched my mom try to chase down the cab...we left a bag in the car. :/
We went back into the hotel and Luke wanted to take the stairs. I agreed while carrying the stroller since we are only on the second floor. We went up the main staircase but then you have to take one more short flight of stairs. He got to the top, pointed left and confidently said, "This way." Being the gullible mother that I am, I trusted that my two year old knew where he was going, afterall he'd done this before. We went up a flight, and another flight, and another flight, only to lead us to a dead end with a small door that lead us to the 3rd floor pool! We treked all the way back down that steep staircase, WITH the stroller and turned right instead of left, up another flight of stairs and found our way home.
There we bumped into all our family from Wisconsin who had just gotten in...
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