Eclectic Parent

We made it into New York - later than we would have liked, but we arrived. We ended up getting a membership to the Natural History Museum. Even if we go twice this trip it’s worth it. We used to have a membership when we lived here and came in all the time; but, no matter how often we came, we only saw the dinosaurs. OK we snuck the occasional quick trip to the whale room, as it’s known around our house, but otherwise it was hours of dinos. Today we never got there.

On the was in we talked about what we saw out our window - forest instead of desert. Why? More rain, cooler temperatures. Bigger buildings and more parking garages because there are more people. We talked about Manhattan being an island so there are lots of bridges. By the time we got into the city we discussed quite a big of geography and urban development

With the membership we got into two free exhibits. The first had an open time right as we arrived so we zoomed up to the 4th floor to the Mythical Creatures exhibit. The cool thing about AMNH is that even when the do an exhibit about mythical creatures it’s the science and history behind it. How did people start to believe (fossils, etc), which cultures had different beliefs. From kraken to mermaids to the difference between griffins and sphinx, we covered quite a bit of territory. Then to lunch and more discussions.

We then headed to the whale room, which has an official name but I have no idea what it is. By then B was ready for a nap and the boys wanted to document the experience. So D took the kids’ camera and C had the video camera and we wondered through aquatic life discussing giant squids and the size of seal lions vs the seals we saw yesterday at the aquarium. By the time we were done with tides and mangroves, it was time for our second timed entry exhibit, which was frogs.

Big frogs, little frogs, poison frogs, gliding frogs. Kids spent a lot of time in this one. B kept asking if she could hold them yet. C and D liked finding the camoflauged frogs and trying stuff (sounds of frogs, a spinning wheel that showed frogs jumping and controlling the frog cam). There were Vietnamese Moss Frogs that looked exactly like moss, tiny little poison dart frogs and huge African bullfrogs the size of dinner plates.

From frogs the kids were pretty much ready to go home. We exited the exhibit into the gift shop and it seemed like a sign. A couple of souvineers and time to fight rush hour back to Connecticut. We got back in time for a little swimming (OK, not we, I don’t swim in water that makes your lips turn blue). Kids had fun though.

Tomorrow is up for grabs; we’ll see what happens.