Mass trip '11: day 4

[pyesetz]

Day 4: Science Museum

September 30th was one of two days of the trip set aside for museums, on the grounds that BIL #1 would have wanted us to have some fun with his money.

Discovery Museums, Acton MA.  Acton is an hour’s drive from our hotel, because this museum had been chosen back when we had been planning to stay further North and West of the same-old hotel we ended up going back to.  It began life as a 10-room Victorian mansion that one math teacher somehow found the money to buy and convert into a toddler’s museum 30 years ago.  It was so successful that they bought the adjacent parcel and built a science museum for older kids.  From the roadway, it’s just an old house with a big mailbox that happens to say ”Discovery Museums” on it; we missed it the first time and had to turn around.  Arrival time = 1:15 PM.  Admission = $42 for a family of four.
      The museum is overstaffed for the light Friday-afternoon crowd.  It is a little creepy: I try playing with a flashlight/magnifying glass/fossils exhibit, but the flashlight didn’t work; within seconds, a staffer shows up to replace the batteries.  I don’t really care about the fossils that much—no need to fix it just for me!
      There are magnets and pendula and watery playthings of various kinds.  Not bad for a science museum!  Then we proceed to the Victorian toddler’s museum to see whether there is anything not too babyish.  One room is filled with tracks and has balls to race down them!

Penzey’s Spices, Arlington MA.  4:32 PM, $114.80 for a selection of specialty spices that are hard to find in Kitchener; also includes a few gifts for (A Certain Furry) that I owe some gifts to.  I’ve previously mentioned the crayon drawing table that my children had used on previous trips—it’s gone now.

Rainforest Café, Burlington MA.  It’s Friday night at the Burlington Mall and the parking lot is packed!  The Salem Five Bank is having a grand opening for their new branch in this mall and is handing out free reusable shopping bags enblazoned with their logo.  I accept their gift, but it seems weird to me to be opening a bank when there’s a Depression in progress.  But sometimes it’s the most contrary business plans that turn out successfully.
      The café is showing its age.  Some of the animatronic animals have visible cracks in their latex, which reminds me of some of the decaying exhibits at Disneyworld.  The food is okay.  $102.64, 6:06 PM.

Bath & Body Works, Burlington Mall.  The receipt says we bought ”AB_1ZHNDGL_CP” for $1.50 (plus 6¼% sales tax).  The receipt notes that there is another 6¼% tax called ”MANL TAX” but the item is exempt from whatever that tax is (Google doesn’t help).  6:33 PM.

Bank of America, Burlington Mall, 6:39 PM.  I need some more cash to pay the tolls for the trip home.  The mall ATM is provided by Bank of America, about whom I have heard nothing but bad news these last few months.  Sometimes they act like they own the country (”We have a right to make a profit” says its CEO—no sir, you have the right to *try* to make a profit); other times they act like they’re already insolvent: shutting down their website and having customers arrested to prevent anyone from closing their accounts; transferring trillions in bad bets from their investment bank to their retail bank to force the government to insure those.
      But I just want to withdraw some cash from my Canadian chequing account; what could POSSIBLY go wrong?  I insert my card and press some buttons.  Out comes a $20 bill and a receipt that implies no withdrawal fee.  Later, my bank statement from TD Canada Trust says $21.50 was withdrawn, but it doesn’t say whether this was due to the exchange rate or payment of a hidden ATM fee.  (There is a US law against hidden fees, but Bank of America is above the law.)  Also, TD charged me a $3 foreign-ATM fee so my USD 20.00 withdrawal actually ended up costing CAD 24.50 which is an 18% markup.  In the past, TD has charged the $3 fee only once per trip, but I made only one withdrawal of cash during this trip.

Comments

[pyesetz]

I also used to have a minimum-$100 withdrawal rule, but nowadays I just don't need that much currency.  Almost everyone takes plastic!