Museum Visit

For Christmas my friends Lisa and John gave our family a year membership to our local museum. We've had a membership before, but it lapsed months ago. Last Thursday Viva went down town with Grandma Karen to deliver Girl Scout cookies so I coaxed Kara into letting us all go to pick her up so that we could visit the museum. It was Lincoln and Evan's first visit. Evan slept through almost the entire visit, but Lincoln had a great time exploring the museum.

Here's the crew waiting for mom to park the car and join us. 

A photo op in front of a Sydney Laurence painting. 

Lincoln did not cooperate.

The trio asked to throw pennies in the fountain.

Fountains are rare in Anchorage, so we celebrate the few we have.

Viva was a master with the bubble solution.

B did his best.

Jake did his best. 

Viva again demonstrated superior understanding of bubble dynamics.

There's a small playground for the under 5 group.

We stopped there for a short visit.

The boys love this exhibit which features a small wind tunnel.

Bentley pulled Viva up in the lift chair.

Viva pulled Bentley and Lincoln up!

It was not easy.

Jake tried out the spinning table.

Lincoln just wanted to grab a ball or two.

Kara and Evan at an exhibit whose purpose I do not understand.

Lincoln played the sand drum.

Viva created a tsunami in the water tank.

The boys built structures at the earthquake table.

On the way out we revisited the bubble station.

Viva showed off her awesome skills one last time.

The children enjoyed our visit. They were a little bummed to find the jelly fish gone. Their tank was filled with young salmon which are not nearly as fascinating as jelly fish. Did the jelly fish die? Next to the salmon tank is the alligator tank. Why does the Anchorage Museum have two live alligators?  

While we were pondering this mystery Lincoln left our group and returned to the children's play area. The play area is right next to the alligator tank, but on the other side of a see through wall. We turned our attention away from the alligators to discover him gone. Then we saw him on the other side of the glass wall. How did he get over there? You have to go down and around and back. That child is too clever for his own good...and for ours, too.

As you can see from the photos after a super quick visit to one room of paintings we spent the rest of our time at the museum at the Imaginarium science center. Whenever we go to the museum we end up there and we cannot drag the children out of that part of the museum to visit the other exhibits. 

Next visit we start elsewhere in the museum and leave the Imaginarium for last.