Sabrina: First, we went to one visitors center and saw a 16-minute video. Then, we went to a second center and saw two short 5-minute videos. So we saw about 25 to 30 minutes of video altogether.
When asked by my mother what they saw after one of the videos, Sabrina just looked at her blankly. And it took some prompting for her to remember that after the video, the screen was raised, and they were able to see up close and personal some of the area devastated by the eruption.
Rose: Well, there were two different gift stores. And they had these cute little moose earrings. Wouldn't it be cute to wear moose earrings? I would love something like that. And they also had this cool multicolored volcano putty. I sure would love to get my hands on that.
After about 10 more minutes of hearing about the wonders of the gift stores, I asked Rose if she actually learned anything about the mountain itself. She had far less to say about that. "It blew up. It was big."
Calvin: We were sitting in this theater looking out over the mountain. Guess what, mom? If we had been sitting there when the mountain blew up, we totally would have been taken out!
There was some later discussion comparing Pompeii to Mount St. Helens. Rose asked if we dug under the ash and mud, would we find intact houses, lodges, bodies, et cetera, like they did with Pompeii. David told her that no, it was a different type of explosion. Calvin piped in with, "Oh, so Mount St. Helens had a different pyroclastic flow?"
Say what? When challenged by Sabrina that he didn't know what that meant, he shot back with a decent definition (the way the ash and rocks flow down a mountain after it explodes). I was totally impressed.
Of course, this is the same kid that five minutes later informed us he had just discovered his pants were on inside-out.
