Seriously though, that was an awesome museum trip. We started off the day a little late and thought we wouldn't have enough time to explore, but I tell ya... at the end of three hours our whole party was tuckered out.
We went down to the Children's Museum in Portsmouth, VA. Previously we had always gone to the museum in Richmond because it was closer and less traffic, but we had read that this one had just been through some remodeling. So instead of rehashing old content (cough: Blizzard Entertainment) we opted for something new and exciting.
The drive down there was great. The kids were great. Everything went smooth. Rolled into the parking garage and was greeted with a great surprise - FREE PARKING ON SUNDAY! w00t w00t... money saved! Strolled into the actual museum and man were we blown away. Immediately I saw what Aiden was going to scream for... a massive train exhibit. Part of which was hands on. After choking down the $75 admission we headed straight for it. All the kids eyes lit up with excitement. Never before had they seen such a display of trains... and to be honest, I can't remember when I had seen that many before either. Sadly, none were the real thing, but everyone still enjoyed it.
I won't lie. It made me miss the days when me, my dad, and my grandfather built a bug ole mountain and display board for out scale trains. Wish I had kept those trains... the kids would love them just as much as I did.
From there we explored every inch of the place. We saw how grocery stores and banks worked. We saw a runny nose (with simulated dripping snot) and how a burp forms. Explored the awesome world of POWER; Anne made a bottle fly up through the air with 70psi of air pressure behind it. Every time she launched it, it scared the crap out of her.
After a bunch more rooms we made it to the coveted Bubble Room... This my friends was all the rage. They had two areas set up where you could make giant bubbles around yourself. No one we saw (nor we) could make one go fully around. Then you could step over to two other stations where they had vats of bubble solution and you could use various items (including an elbow joint of PVC piping and plastic hangar) to blow bubbles with. Even Adam got a kick out this room. One of the far walls was see through, and on the inside it had clear tubes with bubbles running through them. He just stared with the biggest eyes ever as they floated into oblivion.
All these rooms for the "big" kids, poor Adam though didn't have much to do but stare... That was until we found a corner just for him. A special section for the 3 and under crowd. A gated community, if you will, dedicated to those who are still wobbly. We put him down a in padded circular ?couch? area that had some big giant eggs in it. Talk about one of the happiest babies on earth. He laugh and giggled the whole time, and threw his first real fit on the way out. He was not happy about leaving.
We explored some more through out, made our way to the gift shop and exited promptly thereafter. No purchase was made. The shop was probably my biggest gripe (that and the planetarium not available until September). It had no real merchandise that said "hey I was at this museum." It was filled with over priced stuff I could find at any nick-knack shop or Toys "R" us. But whateves! .. Yeah... I said that. The kids had a blast, the adults had a blast watching the kids (and playing some too!); all-in-all a great experience.
My apologies for the wordiness and horrible back and forth on this one. I am a tired little puppy and ready to hit the hay.
Toodles
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