A Museum, A Carousel, and Batman

We had a wonderful Saturday.
Despite the rain
and an incident on a carousel.
For weeks I’ve been planning our visit to the
Smithsonian’s annual Kite Festival.
In the drizzle, fog, and general dampness
the kite festival went on but we opted for the Museum of Natural History.








































































Commit this little gem to memory and then ever so casually mention it during your next trip to the zoo or at play group when there is a giraffe in a book. Everyone will think you are a brilliant

































When I was little girl my parents would take me to the Smithsonian and I would get to ride the carousel. I couldn’t pronounce Smithsonian so I called it Mr. Odeo. Specifically, I called the carousel Mr. Odeo. I loved to ride Mr. Odeo. There was joy leaping from my heart on Saturday when we decided to take Luke on his first carousel ride. My son was going to enjoy the same carousel ride I did. It was a sweet moment.






















*Note the height of the fence.
























































It was sweet until a little girl fell off and her lower half got caught under the carousel and was dragged screaming one and a half times around.
R I G H T I N F R O N T O F U S.
Her dad jumped off.
We started screaming S T O P.
Her dad grabbed her but she was being pulled
and his motion from jumping made him fall backwards.
He started running after her.
We are still screaming stop.
My husband jumped the fence (are you remembering the height of the fence?)
and pulled her free just as the dad got there.
The carousel stopped.
A few notes about the incident:
The little girl appeared to be ok physically. Scrapes, cuts and bruises as you would expect. She was taken via ambulance to the hospital to be sure.
I have been calling Faris Batman since yesterday.
We will not be riding carousels or any of those traveling fair rides e v e r.
The two grandmas standing next to Faris (who kindly watched our belongings when Faris turned into Batman) told me it was amazing how he leapt over the fence.
Batman has a bruised knee, a few scrapes and cuts, a knot over his left eye, and a minor hole in his jeans.

We ended our afternoon with a quiet walk on the boardwalk.