Maker Faire

We took the kids to the Maker Faire today. I had never been before and honestly, while I knew what to expect as far as the things we'd see, I didn't know how the girls would react.

The weather was great, though after lunch time it began to get a bit warm and shady spots were at a premium.

We arrived right at 10AM when it opened. I only had two items on my list of things I wanted to be sure saw. The Tesla Coils playing music and, as pictured above, the "Diet Coke and Mentos" show.

The Tesla coils were first and I was very excited to be able to see these massive things in person, finally. My younger daughter (10) lasted just a few minutes before asking if we could go. She was very excited at first, even asking me to hold her up so she could see the robot on stage, but then got scared at the "lightning" shooting out. "It's real lightning, dad. It's freaking me out." (That's really how she talks...)

This is the same girl who would later climb aboard a 40 foot fire breathing dragon sculpture, so go figure.

The Mentos show was fun, even though I had seen the videos on the internet. The kids loved it.

And then it was 1:30pm and everyone else on the planet showed up. It got so crowded that we could not go into any of the buildings to look at displays because of the constant jostling and sheer mass of humanity. The lines for lessons and tutorials were incredibly long (the kids managed to surprise me, though, by finding spots in the lock-picking class all on their own). Taking one step every couple of seconds is no way to travel. I was gritting my teeth and trying not to get too upset as I was constantly run into by people. But luckily I was saved by my kids who announced that they were ready to head home.

I hope that they're inspired by what they saw and heard and read today. The people that run the Maker Faire and the people who do displays and lectures and lessons (our kids learned how to solder today!) are incredibly nice and focused on the kids having fun. And I have to say that as crowded as it was, everyone there seemed to be intent on having fun and learning.

Oh, and later on after we'd been home for a while, I'm pretty sure I saw my kids looking in the garage, checking out all of my tools with a different look in their eyes...