Weeknotes: Spring Break, Science Projects, Raspberry Pi Fun, and Trains!

Last week was spring break for our local school district, and Lauren and I both took breaks from work to have a family-focused week. It was a low-stress, low-pressure, great time.

We often put a lot of pressure on ourselves to “make the most” of these school/work breaks, but we’ve learned over the years that trying to cram too much (too many activities, but also too much expectation) into a week off can be… too much. This year, with a bit of initial discomfort, we went into the week with minimal plans and expectations.

Ski Day

Monday we headed out to Alpine Meadows for a family ski day. We don’t get the opportunity often to all ski together, and after shaking out some initial kid-grumpies related to our differing ability levels, we found a vibe where everyone had fun.

The big kids wound up one-skiing the whole mountain to level the playing field and introduce some hilarity.

One-skiing from the summit chair: Lucas and Isaac had slightly different approaches 😂

The ski season is quickly winding down, so this will probably be one of the last days we all get out together. It was a good one.

Discovery Museum Reno

Tuesday we went down to the Discovery Museum in Reno with some friends. The kids happily spent hours exploring the various exhibits; all ages were engaged, including the adults.

Surprisingly, I only have one photo from the day: this impressive certificate I earned for solving a bunch of puzzles in one of the exhibits.

Science Fair Project

Brilliant move by Lucas’ school to schedule their science fair project the week after spring break… at least for kids like Lucas who will take advantage of the time to get work done.

I was able to help him build a “fluid conductivity tester” using a multimeter as an ammeter, and a USB controller providing a very low amperage (µA) circuit for testing.

We need to come up with more projects to build (and include the other kids). It was really fun working together.

Fun With Raspberry Pi(s)

While Lucas worked away on his project, I dug through my electronics toolbox and did some inventory. Turns out I had 4 old Raspberry Pi boards (and a bunch of Arduinos) buried in there just begging to be used for something.

I set up one of the version 1 boards with Pi-hole for DNS-powered ad blocking and Cloudflared to play with Cloudflare tunnels. Pretty fun little side project!

I’m not sure what I’ll do with the version 3 with the screen, but it’s a good excuse to 3D print an enclosure! So that’ll be happening soon.

Trains

We wrapped the week with another museum trip down to the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento.

The railroad museum is excellent. We visited many years ago, taking the train up from SF and spending the night in Old Sacramento, and we recreated the experience for the first time for all but the oldest kids. We explored the museum on Friday, spent the night at a hotel just down the street, and enjoyed a ride along the river on some of their vintage carriages on Saturday morning.

This is an excellent little overnight excursion for families. Next time we’ll take the California Zephyr down from Truckee for even more train time. 🚞🚉🚂

A Good Week

We wrapped the week with Easter festivities (way too much candy) and a lovely, last-minute dinner celebration with friends. It’s the time of the year that always feels like we come out of hibernation, and all of our activities suddenly flip over to summer mode. I’m glad we stayed close to home to enjoy it.