Long day at the pier

I don't know what is the matter with my body and brain that they can't get sleepy at night but they can't. Had about 5 hours sleep before we got up and ready for our big day. The kids were sort of on slow-mo this morning and were a bit tough to rally. I tried to talk Ole and Tony into joining us but they already had plans.
We got to the pier around 10:45AM and the parking lots were already packed. They were directing traffic to park against the outer walls. We stopped at the Skyline stage to find out what sort of seats were left for the afternoon performance of Cirque Shanghai. Turned out, there were 3 seats in the 5th row aisle available. We ended up doing a combo ticket - this included the show, a boat cruise and ferris wheel ticket (plus a 20% off some seafood restaurant coupon).
We decided to get on the boat first. Our thinking was it was only going to get hotter as the day went on. It turned out to be a wonderful time to take a boat tour because the planes were practicing for the air and water show this weekend. Nick was afraid of the planes, well more the huge sound the planes left as they went zooming past. It was lovely out on the lake with a nice breeze and seeing the planes practice.
We went to the Children's museum afterwards. We re-newed our membership and the kids quickly found their way into the line to go up the pirate ship. We looked at the new miniature collections exhibit. I thought about how we could have probably supplied them with an assortment of miniature collections. We did the dino dig and the butterflies. We had our wristband so we decided to cruise out to the pier to pick up a snack before Cirque.
We had pretzels and walked up the Skyline stage. We got to our perfect seat and Nick decided he wanted to be on the end. The show was so fun and amazing to see right up close. The motorcycle on the tight rope went right over us. I just hope the kids are nuts enough to try some of the tricks at home. We made a quick stop off for a water refill and went to the ferris wheel.
The views from the wheel are wonderful. You hardly know you are moving since it is in constant motion. It was a quick ride - only about 7 minutes to make it around. We stopped and the kids had a snack before we walked out to the front of the pier to look at the sculptures and art. The posed with the art and we had some good laughs.
We walked to the end of the pier (again) so that Nick and Ellie could try out the xbox 360. They had a couple units set up and you would go into these trucks and the people outside could see you dancing and playing and then you could email the pictures to yourself. Ellie and Nick did the dancing one and it was humorous to watch. We took a a break and sat down in the garden area to listen to karaoke and watch the very "into it" DJ dance and sing.
When we rested up enough we walked through the Tiffany stained glass exhibit and decided to have an early dinner. We found that our favorite Mexican restaurant from last summer had reopened and that is where we ate. We dined outside and got to watch the boats come in and go out. Even got to see some more planes. We lucked out and it was late night at the Children's museum so after we ate we went back to the museum.
We did the art studio and the kids got to make clay masks showing emotions. Nick's face was almost star shaped (he made these bizarre ears). We traveled back up to do one more run through the pirate ship and then found a couple craft stations were open. We made a final washroom stop and then decided to walk back to the car. The plus about having to park against the wall...you get a view of the Skyline stage. We were just in time to see the opening of the 7:30PM Cirque show. The kids got to see the "behind the curtain" look. They got to see the guys in the dragon costume and the para-gliders slide down their ropes. It was a very cool ending to our very cool day.
Nick amassed strange things today...Bird feathers, pipe cleaners and a daisy (a flower show was in the convention center today). We drove home and got to see all the prep going on for the air and water show. We came home and showed Rob all our pictures and videos from today. I was amazed that neither of the kiddos complained about feet hurting or being tired today. Ellie and I did some reading while Nick and Rob relaxed to Letter Factory. We got the kids to sleep and Rob and I got to chill out for a bit.
I have no idea what we are going to do tomorrow, the last Friday before 4th grade starts. Ellie asked to go back downtown and I told her no. We might go see a movie or hit a couple parks. I got my blood work results from Monday and all my levels are back down to normal ranges. Except for my white blood count which is still low but perhaps I was already getting sick. Visualising my healthy and continually healing body and the new normal, Tree