Todays vacation post is all about the Museum of Natural History in New York City!The Museum of Natural history is something so many people talk about but never actually visit! My husband had been to it previously back when he was in school, but never got to see all the exhibits. So, we decided as soon as we planned our trip that we would visit the museum and dedicate an entire day to it! (yes, with the baby! we are brave souls!)
We arrived in the morning, and were greeted by a giant dinosaur skeleton in the lobby (which instantly excited my 9 year old son, but we had said before going that we would save the best - dinosaurs - for last!)The first exhibits we saw were the African Animals! Amazing displays that made you feel as if you're on a safari (which I thought was funny when my husband showed me the pictures, and I told him it looks like our vacation was an African safari!) Below are some of the African animals exhibits I wanted to share that really impressed me.... (the rest of this post is below the pictures)
The halls of the museum were full of all sorts of informative displays and texts of ancient tools, equipment, and weapons:
We honestly skipped most of the 'peoples' displays - they weren't interesting for little ones and there were many! The next exhibit we saw was the museums current special exhibit - creatures of light - which features underwater sea life. The room had low lighting and was on two levels. On the first level were the displays of different sea animals, and below were more displays and a movie playing on huge screen of sea life - with a big place to sit on the floor for the kids (we welcomed the break!)
The best part? There was a giant whale hanging from the ceiling (pictured below) and projected on the ceiling was an underwater world! Soothing ocean sounds, fish and other underwater creatures swim above you while youlie on the ground, making you feel as if you're floating in the ocean!
And next of course, were the dinosaurs! Besides the amazing skeletons, there were also many interactive displays! Touch screen computers with information on different dinosaurs and prehistoric eras, displays you can touch(!) like dinosaur teeth, and eggs - see the pictures below!
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| Dinosaur footprints! |
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| the most exciting one!! T-rex. |
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| one of the display descriptions |
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| dino teeth to touch. |
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| there were many of these displays f=showing how the dinosaurs evolved during each era and which were related. |
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| Interactive touchscreen computers. |
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| more computers and models of how the continents shifted. |
The last place to see was the display of meteorites, which unfortunately, I did not go to see because both my daughter (9 months) and I were exhausted! So we opted to sit on the ocean floor display with my sister and set the baby free to crawl around!
After we were finished with exhibits, we stopped at the gift shop where my son got an awesome shark jaw bone!
All in all our museum trip was great! I'd say if you're planning to go, and don't want to really skip over anything, it might take more than a day. You may also want to bring some snacks and drinks for the kids if you're bringing them, because there is a restaurant in the museum, but it is not cheap!
And leave early so you'll be able to take breaks now and then - it's a really big, wonderful museum!
