We had such a busy, family-filled weekend! The in-laws came down to our area for the weekend so tourism was the name of the game. There was a model train museum, meals out, a science museum and an aquarium not to mention the hotel pool time. All of this packed into a Friday night and Saturday with a pack of 10 (three being kids 5 and under).
The Science Museum of Minnesota is always a blast for any age that can run around and likes to look at things that move. Alyssa was the only little one joining us Friday night as the plan was for the Tornado Alley movie going on in the Omnitheater. This being a dark, loud movie about storms (not to mention Momma's aversion to motion sickness) Alyssa and I opted to go play around the interactive area on the third floor while the others went to the movie. There were lenses, electrical currents, wave machine, lights, colors and all sorts of other science-y stuff that I'm sure I learned back in junior high with enough detail to pass on some understanding of what we were playing with if we had spent more than 2-3minutes at each station before being toddler distracted by the next neat looking thing! All of these neat, educational and interactive displays were fun but the biggest joys were the displays of dinosaur skeletons. I guess it is genetically ingrained in the human species to be amazed by the strange and large skeletal displays of creatures that could have either squashed, smashed or eaten us had they been fleshed out still.
There is a sorry lack of pictures from all these events. I forgot my camera at home both days and Alyssa wasn't going to slow down in the excitement to take pictures for my cell phone. Since we love the aquarium and museum I'm sure there will be more chances for pictures in later posts though.
The Sealife Aquarium located in the MOA (Mall of America) is lots of fun though being a local I'd advise a daytime weekday trip to avoid the masses. Alyssa's favorite part is always right at the beginning--a tank of stingrays who swim around trying to get as close as they can to your hands even though there is a very thick tank between you. Years ago they had the stingrays in a petting tank and you could 'pet' them (run one or two fingers along their back--no touching of the tails or wings please). The workers described them like cats. They loved the petting if you followed the rules. Of course those rules were broken frequently and people were removed from the aquarium and the petting tank was removed eventually to keep the animals from undue stress thankfully. If you ever get a chance I do recommend stopping and walking through the tunnel where you can see the sharks and sea turtles and other crazy fish swim over your heads. Well, so long as you're not afraid of being in a long tunnel with water around and above you...my grandmother wouldn't do well in this tunnel.
The model trains were neat but as the younger kids require constant supervision to make sure they don't try to grab the 'toys' this was more for the teens and adults in our group. There are displays in two different buildings so don't forget to ask how to get to the other sections! Alyssa was riding shoulders so she could see all the displays but not get too close to mess them up. She did really well when she wasn't on shoulders but the constant concern and watching was more aggravating than letting her walk was worth. There were buttons to press on the side of a lot of the displays to light up various pieces but the trains were running without audience participation overall. There were tables of wooden tracks for kids to play with and even a couple simple Thomas the Train setups so they could drive some electric trains (with adult supervision of course). If you make sure to time your trip to your younger child's good behavior times your trip will be very fun. Final tip: GPS. You will have a heck of a time finding this place without one.
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