Peacocks and Planetario Alfa

Ben had a work dinner last Tuesday, so we knew that it would be a long day for the kids and I. In brainstorming what to do to fill the day, we decided on a place in Monterrey called, "Planetario Alfa." It is a place similar to OMSI, but it also has an aviary on the grounds. It was the perfect way to spend an afternoon...we had the best day!

When we first came into the grounds, we saw a peacock roaming around (little did we know that was foreshadowing the fun to come!). We made our way to the main building, which was a very cool modern looking tower with wonderful spiral staircases inside. Due to Ben and I's research we knew that there was a Lego exhibit on the first two floors. I really cannot say enough about how cool this exhibit was...it was amazing! It was so well done that it reminded me of Lego land. The boys had a blast! We made cars and raced them, built a pyramid out of really large Legos, browsed cool displays themed after traveling the world, and dressed up like car racers and train conductors.  

 Our first peacock sighting!

 The front of the building and this fountain were so gorgeous

 A depiction of the transcontinental railroad and the "golden spike"

 "We are going to Florida," with the Epcot Center and a rocket launch 

Making race cars

Josh and I's creation

 The kids were instructed to make a vehicle that could fly over a volcano, drive on sand and float in water, and then they could try it out on that table behind Josh. Such a cool project! I love this picture of Josh because it reminds me so much of Sam and Seth when they first started making Lego cars and showing them off to me for pictures. He's just about the age they were when they got obsessed with Legos.

 A group effort pyramid 

 Life sized Lego car: Seth 

Sam

 Josh

 Seth as a train conductor and Sam a race car driver. The clothes were all too big for Josh, so he had to settle for being the Lego man.

While we could have stayed at the Lego display all afternoon, we decided to move upstairs to a whole room dedicated to the human body and how it works. I was so impressed by the stations and the way that they allowed kids to get tactile. For example, they had a robot arm that was used for a larger-than life-Operation Game, a basketball hoop that lights up with information when you make a shot, and a "germ tank" that was a wind tunnel where the kids could catch different diseases. Unfortunately we couldn't understand everything (although I'm starting to read Spanish much better). We'll have to return later when we can all read and learn!

 Interactive basketball hoop

 Sammy throwing the ball to reveal information

 

Sam and Seth in the germ tank

 

Joshy in the germ tank and all the boys making it through the "laser course" 

 More pictures from the grounds. I asked the boys if I could take a picture of them in front of these pretty purple flowers, and they all got into the flower bed. Not exactly what I had in mind...

Tropical flower beauty

We saved the aviary for last, waiting for the day to cool down a bit. As we walked towards the gate, we saw a white peacock...which was gorgeous! (Any of you Harry Potter fans out there remember Malfoy Mansion and the white peacocks?) 

 Then, we saw a male peacock with feathers out, showing off for some people. With true American expectations, we assumed that this was as close as we would get the the beautiful birds. We oohed and aahed and took pictures of the bird, all with a fence to separate us, of course. 

I'm pretty sure that this peacocks was purposefully showing us his backside

My favorite peacock picture of the day! Just gorgeous!

 Then we moved on and went inside the gate where a mom was feeding a bunch of ducklings with her toddler son. Now this was cool: we discovered that we could buy bird food for a mere $1 peso and started feeding the ducklings too. 

 Then we looked up and realized that there was a path littered with peacocks. There were no "caution" signs, or no billboards with instructions about how to feed to peacocks (not that we could have understood them anyways), so we proceeded across the bridge to one of the coolest experiences of our lives. These peacocks were basically tame. We bought more food, we threw it on the path and 2, 3, then 4 peacocks came within touching distance of us. 

Count the peacocks in the paths above 

 Is it going to attack us? 

 We saw a mother peacock roosting on her egg, then we saw a mama peacock with her "peachicks" (I had to look that one up to see what they are called). 

 

 Hilarious picture of Seth

 At one point in time Seth put some of the food up on a railing and as the peacock was trying to get to it, it slipped off, back onto the path. Well, apparently it didn't like that much, as it immediately went full plume and started hissing at us. So we had an angry peacock on one side, and about 4 other peacocks on the other...we were trapped. 

This is what it looks like when it's mad!

 It was such a funny experience because I really didn't know how the peacocks were going to react to us. In America, geese and ducks can be mean, and my only information regarding peacocks was that the Oregon Zoo used to have some walking loose and got rid of them because they attacked someone. Least to say, we were pretty wary of the birds, and Josh was down right scared of them. But in the end, we made it to the top of the path, saw some parakeets that were in a viewing cage, and made it back down without incident. The boys told me that I was taking way too many pictures, but I cannot even explain how amazing it was to be surrounded with such beautiful birds. 

  The width of the feathers is so astounding!

As we made it back down to the path, we saw a black swan, and then bought a little more duckling food. All the kids petted a duckling. Through my broken Spanish (and google translate) I was able to ask the worker if the peacocks were aggressive, and she said "no," which would have been great knowledge to be equipped with on the way up the path. Oh well, perhaps the uncertainty made it even more fun.

 Not every day that you get see a nest full of eggs! 

As we made our way out of Alfa Planetarium, I saw a lot of things that looked very Harry Potterish. Come to find out they were having an outside screening of "Fantastic Beasts," and there is a Harry Potter Club in Monterrey that was there selling Butterbeer and HP clothes. It was awesome! I had to take a picture for my sister!

By this time it was 7:30 in the evening, and my plan was for us to walk to a pizza place up the road. We hoofed it for about 10 minutes (thankfully with Popsicles, or palotas, in hand), and arrived at the pizza place to find it closed. The hours stated it was supposed to be open, there was no sign indicating why they weren't there, it was just closed. Ah, Mexico, you and your randomness got us again! Thank goodness for those popsicles to hold us off until an uber car could bring us home. But really, nothing was going to dampen our spirits...it was such a fun day and one of my favorite memories with the boys to date!