The Fernbank Museum

Today, the kids and I went to the Fernbank Museum downtown. This was the first day that I actually drove into the downtown area on I-75. What an experience!! I've determined that Atlanta traffic on the interstate only has 2 speeds-either you go really slow in bumper to bumper traffic OR you go really fast (and by really fast I mean 75 to 80mph when it's listed 55mph). Today I had the priveledge of being able to drive in both.

When we got onto I-75 at 11:00 this morning it was bumper to bumper for about 2 miles due to an accident. The rest of the time I felt like I was the turtle on the interstate, and I was driving at 75 mph. But I soon became accustomed to my surroundings and it didn't seem so bad. I've also realized that going 20 mph over the posted speed limit is not as big of a deal here in the "big city" as it is on I-81. I have to admit, by the end of our outing I was the one breezing past those "turtles."

So anyway...our visit to the Fernbank was very much enjoyable. I had done a little searching on the internet about this museum prior to today and thought it sounded like a nice place to visit. I was also excited that if I bought a membership at the Fernbank it would be accepted at the Science Museum at home also. And even better than that...I was able to save $10.00 on the membership since I am a teacher! So our family now has full membership priveledges at the museum until July 2008. And that's a good thing because there was no way we were going to be able to see the entire museum today - we will have to go back again to finish it at a later date.

Below are some of the pictures I took while we were there. The kids and I had a great time and I look forward to taking John back this weekend to see their IMAX movie titled "Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France." By the way sweetie...if you want to see a trailer for it check this out http://www.wiredtowinthemovie.com/

Trent and Ella both practiced being weather forecasters on the green screen. Trent thought it was very neat that the weather forecasters don't see the pictures on the wall, instead they have to look at the t.v. monitors in front of them. Ella was not as enthusiastic about being on t.v.

Both of the kids had a great time making gigantic bubbles.

One of the special exhibits at the Fernbank this summer is called "Lizards and Snakes." This was a really neat exhibit that had a special area with all kinds of hands-on learning materials for kids to play with. No, Ella and Trent are not holding real, live reptiles...they are just dressed as herpetologists ready to study the plastic look alikes.

The final stop today was in the kid's play rooms. Each room was designed for a specific age group - one for preschoolers and the other for school agers - and teaches kids about the different wildlife in Georgia. The kids both agreed that this was the best part of the day. Here, Ella is pretending to help the bees carry pollen from one flower to another...and she would still be doing this if Iwould've let her. The child drops a ball into one of the two flowers on the sides and the ball goes through the tube back down to the middle flower to be picked up again. Ella figured out how it worked and then tried to see how fast she could do it.

Next door in the school age room, Trent learned how to fish and about the different types of animals that are in the rivers and lakes around Georgia.

So that was our day! Check back soon for more updates.