Children's Museum, Friends & Zoo

We had a very busy week last week. On Monday we met my friend in the town we grew up in for lunch and then the three of us went to the Children's Museum there. Now the friend we met and I have known each other since we were around six months old. Yes, we are lifetime friends. We both now live in different states and our hometown is about halfway between us. Her youngest is my goddaughter who is looking at colleges for next year. Well, we took Hazel by the houses we grew up in and went to the New Children's Museum. Of course anyone from around the area of West Hartford, knows the museum by the giant whale in front of it. See above. After we went through the museum we went into the whale. Remember the picture I asked where Hazel was? She was inside the whale.

I remember loving this whale when I was young!! It was fun to bring Hazel to it. Of course, the little boy who liked hearing his echo inside drove my poor sensitive hearing daughter crazy, but it was fun.

The museum had a Dinosaur Alive exhibit. Hazel loved it!! There was a gazebo in the middle with toy binoculars (which apparently were scratched so you couldn't see out of them) and telescopes (that were not scratched). She decided it was a boat and used the binoculars as the steering wheel. She had the best time. Luckily for me the gift shop was right there so I went shopping while she and my friend played. Hazel must have heard someone (probably one of us) say the exhibit was called Dinosaur Alive because she kept telling people she saw alive dinosaurs. We loved the ones hatching out of their eggs!

This museum also has quite a few animals. It did when we were young as well. I didn't take many pictures of the animals because most were inside where it was dark, but one of the outside ones came out well and I got a lot in Turtle World. We really thought the soft shell turtle was neat.

The museum always had a science focus to it. This was one exhibit. Upstairs was the huge bubble blower. You watched the bubbles float downstairs. When you get down there you see them collecting and they had drums you could hit to make them explode. It was really neat.

Some of the other exhibits we saw. They had a Chimpanzee Maze Exhibit. Hazel got to swing on a rope like a chimpanzee and then my friend helped her record chimp sounds. She loved the floating globe exhibit. You could build your own Lego car and race them down a hill. And they had several ways to pretend to fly. Overall we had a great time!

After the museum we headed to meet some more friends at Starbucks and then we drove to my sister's condo for the night. It was good to catch up with some old friends!!

Later in the week we went to the Franklin Park Zoo. Our friends have a 3-year-old and a 4-month-old. It was a bit trying. We saw so many things. Above are some of the animals: prairie dogs, swans, ducks, peacocks (which roam freely), ostrich, horn bill, hummingbird, flamingos, tortoise and Hazel on the carousel. The zoo is set up in different sections. They had a Jurassic Exhibit that was only there through Monday, so we talked the kids into going. They wanted to play on the playground which is new and HUGE!! So through the dinosaurs they decided they made the wrong choice to see the scary dinosaurs (yes, Hazel got scared here for some reason) and kept asking to go to the playground.

They also have a Butterfly Landing. It is seasonal and last time Steve and I came here it was too early in the year for the butterflies. So this was on my must see list.

They had an enclosed box of the metamorphosis. I heard some of the employees say about 9 had hatched in the last hour. Oh, the hummingbird was in here as well.

They also had African animals. We walked in at the zebra entrance, but there were wildebeests, and ostriches in with them. Then the giraffes had Grevy's zebras with them. The large cats were sleeping. The dark picture is of the leopard. The tigers were also sleeping. I could not get a good picture of the white tiger, but did get this one of the yellow tiger (somehow it didn't make it in the collage).

Well that catches you up with our activities last week. This week will have more exciting adventures including the first day of school!