Museums

Museum of the Rockies Review – Bozeman, Montana

September 8, 2014 by danawyyc 9 Comments

Location: Bozeman, Montana http://www.museumoftherockies.org/
Address: 600 West Kagy Blvd

Day Pass Cost: $14 adult, $9.50 kids 5-17, 4 and under is free. (You may be eligible for free or reduced admission if you have a pass to a Science Center elsewhere)
Food Services: Limited but there are vending machines downstairs.
Age Range: All ages.
Estimated Stay Length: 90 minutes to half a day.
Worth the Trip?: Absolutely. The dinosaur exhibits are excellent, the children’s discovery centre is great for younger kids and they have interesting travelling exhibits too.

Gordie’s Review (5 years old): “I liked playing with my new friends.”
Nicky’s Review (2 years old): “Fish!” (She loves the fishing game in the Children’s Discovery Centre)

Overall:

Bozeman is about 90 minutes away from Yellowstone National Park. The Museum of the Rockies makes a great stop on the way to or from the park. We went 2 years ago and enjoyed it so much we came back again this year.

Martin Children’s Discovery Center

This section is located upstairs and is geared towards kids 8 and under.

It features the science of Yellowstone National Park and is actually better than what is available inside the park. There is a ton of things to play with, touch and even smell.

At the front you can pick up a backpack filled with things you can use to explore the centre. It is fun but totally not necessary for you to enjoy your time there.

There’s an area just for kids 2 and under with age appropriate toys and soft mats to crawl around.

Nicky liked it there both as an infant and a 2 year old.

In the center there’s a model of the Old Faithful Geyser. The noise can be a little startling when it ‘erupts’. If think this may bother your kid, it doesn’t run between 10-noon daily. There is another geyser that you pump by hand too.

There’s a number of other hands on features that help explain the science of Yellowstone to kids as well.

They also have a mini model of the Old Faithful Inn with books and dress-up clothes. Gordie really enjoyed playing there with another kid he met while we were there.

On the other side the have a campground with lots of fun accessories.

On this visit our kids’ (2 and 5 years old) favorite thing was the fishing bridge. The have fishing poles with a little magnet on the end that you can use to catch the fabric fish. They would have happily played their for ages.

Siebel Dinosaur Complex

This is really the main attraction of the Museum of the Rockies. It houses one of the largest collections of dinosaur fossils in the world. Even if you’ve been to a dinosaur museum before, you will not be disappointed. We’ve been to the Tyrell Museum in Drumheller and the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington, DC – this exhibit is of comparable quality.

The museum houses the most T.rex specimens in the world (currently 13) including the largest T.rex skull in the world (Custer T.rex). At the time of this post the Custer T.red head is not on display as it is currently part of the travelling dinosaur exhibit in Japan.

One of the other highlights is the amazing displays on the growth and behavior of the Triceratops. That was my favorite part for sure. So interesting!

Some of the displays showed the dinosaur bones or muscles on one side and what the dinosaur might look like when it was alive on the other.

In each exhibit they also have kids areas set up with books and toys that fit the theme of the exhibit.

Paugh Regional History Hall

This exhibit features historical items and stories from the region from early exploration through World War II. I found this area to be a little less well suited to younger kids, but the large relatable artifacts like planes and other vehicles help hold their interest. There is also a children’s area with books, toys and costumes.

I really liked the house exhibit set up inside like an actual house with cut outs so that you could see the different rooms inside.

The Enduring Peoples exhibit is found between the History Hall and the Dinosaur Complex. It feature the life and culture of the Northern Plains Native Americans. No photography was allowed in the exhibit at the time we were there.

Special Exhibit: Geckos – Tails to Toepads. Closed September 7th

The Museum of the Rockies has a large area for travelling exhibits as well. On our first visit they had an exhibit on Napoleon. This time it was about Geckos.

Inside the exhibit you could see enclosures featuring many different kinds of geckos. The kids loved trying to find the geckos in each one. Some of them were pretty tricky.

Living History Farm

In the warmer months (this year has extended dates to celebrate the 25th anniversary – May 24 – September 21) just outside the museum, you can find the Living History Farm. The historic Tinsley house was relocated to the museum grounds and now serves as a window into the past. You can see costumed interpreters, bake and cook using recipes from the 1890s, grow an heirloom garden and work in the blacksmith’s shop. This year (2014) admission of the Living History Farm is free (regular admission still applies for the rest of the museum. Have you been to the Museum of the Rockies? What did you think?

The National Mall – Washington, DC with Young Kids

May 25, 2013 by danawyyc 1 Comment

The National Mall is the centrepiece of downtown Washington. It is an open air National Park and it and many of the features within it and near it are run by the National Park Service. The National Mall runs from the Washington Monument to Capitol Hill at the East end and the Memorial Parks (sometimes referred to as the National Mall West area) runs from the Lincoln Memorial to The Washington Monument. Many other cool things are right near by including the National Archives, the White House and the Capitol Building.

I’ve already reviewed many of the features of the National Mall and Memorial Parks such as the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and other National Park Service features, the Smithsonian Museums with in depth reviews of our favorites, the Air and Space Museums and the Natural History Museum. But there were a few more aspects that I’d like to highlight that we enjoyed with our kids that didn’t fit into any of my previous posts.

National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden

Unlike most of the Museums and Galleries along the National Mall the National Gallery of Art is not run by the Smithsonian Institute. We didn’t make it inside the Gallery, but they also operate the sculpture garden located between the National Gallery of Art and the Natural History Museum. The Sculpture garden opened in 1999 and surrounds the pre-existing fountain that doubles as a skating rink in the winter months. The sculpture gardens features contemporary art sculptures and is a great place to introduce kids to art.

The great thing about outdoor art galleries for kids is that it’s okay to be loud, and it’s okay to run around. Although you can’t climb on the art, it’s a lot less stressful to take your young kids through a sculpture garden than an indoor art gallery.

When I heard that you could rent skates and skate around in the middle of the sculpture garden, I was enchanted with the idea. Gordie had never been on skates and Nicky still couldn’t even walk so we didn’t end up doing it but I still think it’s really cool that you can.

Surrounding the skating rink are many different large sculptures.

There are also gardens. I imagine those would be prettier in warmer months.

I love how this sculpture is echoed in the crane in the background.

Gordie was amused running around the gardens but was still a little young to to appreciate the sculptures themselves.

This house was one of my favorite pieces. It’s only made up of 3 pieces (2 wall pieces and a roof piece), but the way it’s constructed it looks like it is actually house shaped. If you look at the bottom of the house in this picture you can get an idea of what it really looks like.

United States Botanic Gardens

http://www.usbg.gov/ The United States Botanic Gardens was another place we enjoyed taking the kids. It’s open all year round and there’s a large indoor conservatory so you can see some rich green colors even in the winter. A couple sections including the children’s garden are closed during the winter but there is still a lot to see. Oh, and like so many DC attractions, it’s free too.

The Botanic Gardens are located to the South East of Capitol Hill. They are the oldest continually operating gardens in the United States and is

home to almost 10,000 plants, some over 165 years old.

It was cold the day we went here (actually that pretty much described every day on our trip) so it was a really nice break to be able to walk through the warm indoor gardens.

Gordie has always been fond of flowers so we were pretty sure he was going to enjoy our visit too.

And there were some really interesting flowers too.

We let Gordie use our pocket camera so he could take some picture too.

Inside the main room there there a couple of bridges which Gordie loved walking over and terraces along the walls that you can go up and see the gardens from a different perspective.

There are a number of smaller themed rooms including dessert plants, and medicinal plants that you can access off the main room.

There is also a room that talks about the the countless ways in which plants enrich human life. There’s also a lot of opportunities to smell different kinds of plant derived fragrances. Gordie thought that was a lot of fun, and the display with all the metal flowers was really pretty too.

Smithsonian Carousel

In the middle of the National Mall, in front of the Smithsonian Arts and Industries building you can find the Smithsonian Carousel. The Carousel brings a bit of whimsy that you really don’t find any where else in the National Mall. The original Carousel was installed in 1967 and was replaced by the current carousel in 1981. The current cost to ride is $3.50 per person and it is open almost every day of the year.

When Gordie saw the carousel as we walked towards it he was super excited to ride it. Even if it was snowing a little bit.

The horses are beautiful but Gordie elected to ride in the little ice cream cone shaped seat.

So you can’t even see him. In warmer months, you can even find popcorn wagons, outdoor puppet and musical performances. That wraps up our trip! I am so happy that we were able to go, I can hardly believe how many cool things we saw. I had always wanted to go to Washington, DC but never thought I would actually end up going. Now that we’ve been I really hope to go back with the kids when they are a little bit older.

Where have you always wanted to go? Do you think you’ll end up going?

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History – Washington, DC

April 5, 2013 by danawyyc 10 Comments

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Location http://www.mnh.si.edu/

Address: National Mall – Washington, DC

Gordie’s Review (3.5 years): “I liked the dinosaurs”
Nicky’s Review (11 months): (signing) “Fish!”

Day Pass Cost: Free!

Food Services: Cafeteria/Cafes that focus on focus on local, all-natural, organic, sustainable, made from scratch food.
Age Range: All ages.
Stay Length: Expect to spend at least 2 hours, depending on your level of interest you could easily spend all day.
Worth the Trip?: No question.

Overall: There are going to be few kids who aren’t going to find something they’d love to learn about at this museum. This was the museum I was really looking forward to seeing. This was the museum that to me was the Smithsonian. So my expectations were unrealistically high. This is a great museum, but it is not all the best museums ever of all time rolled into one. Ifi you are looking for a great museum to learn about dinosaurs, bones, early humans, animals and much much more, this is a great place to go.

Gordie was most excited to see the dinosaur bones. If you’ve been to the Tyrrell Museum or the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana, you may find it a little underwhelming. There is absolutely no shortage of bones at the Natural History Museum but only one room features dinosaur bones.

There is a nice variety and Gordie was suitably impressed. We went through the entire museum and this was hands down Gordie’s favorite thing.

Gordie (below) signing dinosaur.

There is a number of other rooms featuring prehistoric animals though and even one featuring prehistoric plants.

My favorite exhibit was the Ocean Hall. It was really well done with lots to look at, tons of information if you had time to stop and read, but even if you are going through with small kids, you feel like you’re getting something out of seeing the displays. It was also beautiful to look at and had some interactive features that Gordie really liked.

This exhibit also had the wow factor for me – they have a giant squid on display! There is not many places that you are going to see one of those.

More giant squid!

I love the lighthearted approach to some of their information signs too – “Why Do So Many Larvae Look So Weird?”

Seeing the deep sea explorer robot was pretty cool too.

They have an aquarium that looks like it is right out of Finding Nemo with clown fish and… dory fish and sea anemones. The kids were both so captivated that we ended up taking them to the Baltimore Aquarium just before we went home.

Look it’s Dory!

The Human Origins section was well done too. Gordie realized that the displays had things on them that we could learn, and he loved that he could lift, roll or slide something at each display and then make me read what it said. It did make him worry about death and dying which I wasn’t really prepared for though.

Gordie wearing his new explorer hat and learning.

The Hall of Mammals is pretty but I could have skipped it. There animals are grouped by region and well displayed if you are interested in looking at that though. It kind of felt like going to a zoo where the animals don’t move.

Upstairs they have a whole hall of bones which we basically ran through. The displays are pretty minimal -it might have been interesting to look at if we didn’t have kids with us.

The Insect Zoo was really cool. They had lots of different insects that you could see and even a few that you could touch managed by volunteers. Nicole was enthralled by seeing the grasshopper on the man’s hand (shown in the picture above). Gordie was nervous about going into the exhibit but in the end he let a caterpillar crawl across his hand.

Although most of the museum is free, a tour through the Butterfly Pavilion is not. Timed tickets are $6 for adults and $5 for children. On Tuesdays (when we happened to be there), it’s free of charge but you still require a timed ticket. Nicole LOVED the butterflies. Gordie was a little nervous so I was carrying him, and a butterfly kept flying around and landing on my shirt. He thought that was pretty funny but a little scary too.

We didn’t see much of the Gems and Minerals halls but we did see the Hope Diamond.

The Discovery Room had a lot of hands on things for kids that is open for them to explore. There are boxes with shells and bones you can touch, costumes, books and more. This is one area I wish we had been able to spend more time in. If you have kids with you I definitely wouldn’t miss it.

Smithsonian Air and Space Museums – Washington, DC

February 28, 2013 by danawyyc 2 Comments

The most impressive museums we went to while we were in DC last week were the two Air and Space Museums. It wasn’t a surprise that my husband felt this way – he’s been a subscriber to the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Magazine for years, but I was surprised to feel the same way.

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Location http://airandspace.si.edu/

Address: Washington, DC

Gordie’s Review (3.5 years): “I liked going in the airplanes! Why did the monkey go into space?”
Nicky’s Review (11 months): (signing) “Airplanes!”

Day Pass Cost: Free!
Food Services: McDonalds.
Age Range: All ages.
Stay Length: Expect to spend at least 2 hours, depending on your level of interest you could easily spend all day.
Worth the Trip?: Absolutely

Overall: Even for someone without a major interest in airplanes, there is a lot to wow you right from when you walk in the front doors. Inside the main hall is their Milestones of Flight Exhibit.

They have the Spirt of St. Louis in which Charles Lindbergh made his solo trip across the Atlantic, the Mercury spacecraft in which astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. became the first American to orbit the Earth, the Bell X-1, the first airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound and much, much more. They also has a small piece of moon rock that you can actually touch. You can touch the moon!

Seriously, how mind blowing is that?

They also have a real lunar module – it didn’t actually go to the moon, but it could have, it was the back up for the one that did. And the actual Wright Flyer (not a reproduction), world’s first successful flight of a powered, heavier-than-air flying machine. The exhibits (and there are many!) are well presented too. If you have the time and inclination there is a lot there for you to read and learn, but if you are instead going through it like I was with two small kids, you can still get a lot out of it by just walking through. They also have a number of features throughout the museum that really makes it great for kids. More than anything Gordie (3.5 years) wanted to go inside the airplanes. There were a number of opportunities to do walkthroughs including the backup Skylab above and airplanes like the one below. The exhibits also feature interactive elements that really help keep kids engaged. One of the exhibits is even specifically aimed at kids. It is filled with hands on elements that help explain How Things Fly. We spent hours at National Air and Space Museum. I would highly recommend that anyone in the Washington, DC area at least take a quick look through the Milestones of Flight area.

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center – Air and Space Museum

Location http://airandspace.si.edu/

Address: Chantilly, Virginia (roughly 45 minutes outside of Washington, DC)
Day Pass Cost: Free!
Parking Cost: $15 per car
Food Services: McDonalds.
Age Range: 7+
Stay Length: Expect to spend at least 2 hours, depending on your level of interest you could easily spend all day.
Worth the Trip: If you have the time and any interest in airplanes, you’ll be happy you went.

Overall: If you are a big aviation fan, you are also going to want to check out the newer Udvar-Hazy facility. This museum houses the larger items in their collection (as well as many smaller ones).

The two headliners are the SR-71 Blackbird and the Space Shuttle Discovery.
They are both really cool to see.

There are tons of other aircraft including a Condorde and an F-14.

The displays are a lot more similar than at the National Air and Space Museum. It is very much like a whole bunch of cool airplanes have been put in a giant hanger.

There is a lot less specifically geared towards kids and very little hands on.

There was one plane (a Cessna) that you could take a turn at using the controls. It doesn’t run all the time as a volunteer has to be there to man the plane. Gordie really enjoyed that.

We spent a couple of hours at this museum, which was about the limit with our two small kids. My husband easily could have spent all day there, but there just wasn’t enough to keep Gordie engaged for a longer period of time.

If someone in your family is a real airplane fan though, you won’t want to miss the Udvar-Hazy Centre. It’s right near the Dulles airport so it would be a good stop if you have an morning flight into DC or a evening flight leaving DC. If you can only go to one, I’d recommend going to the National Air and Space Museum. It’s easier to access for most people being right along the National Mall and has more to offer for kids.

If you went to both of these museums in two days you could see You could say that in 2 days you can see the first heavier than air, powered plane, a space shuttle and touch the moon