The Free-Ride offspring spent Thanksgiving with the Grandparents Who Lurk But Seldom Comment, cutting into the opportunities for the Free-Ride parents to ask them about matters scientific. Nonetheless, the sprogs have been doing science-y things on their vacation from parents. Two highlights:

• A visit to the Griffith Observatory, where they not only took in a planetarium show, but also weighed themselves on Mercury. (Both elder offspring and younger offspring weighed in at zero — clearly Mercury is the right planet to visit after a heavy Thanksgiving meal!)
• A visit to the California Science Center. The sprogs especially liked exhibits on animation (not only because there were lots of funny cartoon clips, but also because there were interesting how-tos) and on how airplanes fly (since, as elder offspring explains, “you can make anything fly if you know how to shape a wing”). They also took in an IMAX film, Deep Sea 3D, which featured fish, jellyfish, sharks, Humboldt squid, octopus — lots of old favorites.

There was also some feeding of ducks, I’m told.

Meanwhile, the Free-Ride parents took a hike.