Indianapolis Children's Museum

I can't believe it's been almost a month since we've been back from our visit to Indiana. This summer is really flying by! My sister, Officer, lives in Indianapolis and whenever possible I always let her do the driving around town. She never gets lost and I'm not a patient driver! While we were visiting we met my parents, sister in law, sister and her husband and we all visited the Indianapolis Children's Museum. When I was growing up we visited it often but I haven't been there in quite a while and BOY has it changed! 

This is what you walk by to get to the entrance. How cool is that! 

Then before you even enter the museum there are all sorts of famous "landmarks" outside for the kids to climb on...Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China, the Pyramids...

The museum currently has an exhibit about brave children in history that includes, Anne Frank, Ruby Bridges and Ryan White. It was a great exhibit and dang, I was so in to the entire thing I didn't take a single pic of it!! But this chestnut tree was planted in honor of Anne Frank and the tree she saw out her window in the Secret Attic. 

My FAVORITE part of the museum?? The Chilhuly glass sculpture of course!! Never heard of Chihuly?? Do yourself a favor and Google him...awesome artist! 

There is just so much to do at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. We arrived before it opened and I honestly thought we'd be done by lunchtime and have the afternoon to go somewhere else. Nope, we were there for SEVEN HOURS and I don't think we saw everything. 

They have this awesome hands on exhibit about explorers and adventurers that included Egyptology, pirate treasure and the famous Chinese terracotta statues. 

They have an incredible dinosaur exhibit too! Fossils, dress up and (my favorite) a place where you can be a prehistoric artist that discusses how artists decide what a dinosaur probably looked like. They had a section with dinosaur skulls and play putty and the kids (me) could build the skin on the skull. SO COOL! 

I didn't get nearly enough photos of everything at the ICM. I was too busy having fun myself! They had an exhibit on modern Egypt, old toys, the Old Carousel, Transformers, Trains, oh what else? I know I'm forgetting something. The exhibits are constantly changing but one of the greatest things, I think, about the museum is they still have the "oldies but goodies". 

Of all the years my parents have visited the museum, my dad said nobody had sat for this long to watch a particular exhibit. 

What was it?

The Water Clock! We waited at the clock to watch it drain from 12:59-1:00. 

It was the first time I'd ever seen it change! 

AND they STILL have the Indy Car!! I think it's the same car I climbed in when I was a kid! 

My kids and I have been to a LOT of museums but the Indianapolis Children's Museum, no question about it, is the very best for kids! They may have been exhausted by the end of the day but they were never bored! If you are looking for a place to go with your kids this summer the IMC is it! 

(By the way Officer...thanks for driving! You sure made our visit a lot more pleasant! ) 

Sternberg Museum of Natural History

Over the weekend the whole family loaded up for a little day trip to Hays, KS. Hays is knows as the "German Capital of Kansas". Of course I didn't realize this until we were already there or we would have made different plans for the day. (DR and I have a LOT of German ancestry.) Instead we visited the Sternberg Museum of Natural History which is part of Ft. Hays State University. Sternberg is a great little museum! 

We were greeted on our way in by this "little" guy. Right under this life size prehistoric critter there are fish tanks with an alligator, an alligator gar and an alligator tortoise.

The museum was full of fossils and skeletons but my kids were definitely drawn to the life size models. 

The T-Rex was by far the favorite! It was mechanized and every few minutes it's head would turn, it's mouth would open and it would roar! 

Yahoo loved this baby dinosaur because it was "chewing grass" and she kept wanting to come check to see if it were still eating it's lunch. 

Dig like an archaeologist!! 

But this is where we spent the most time, the.... 

There were tons of toy animals, drawers full of specimens...

...specimens in acrylic that we studied under magnifying glasses....

...LOTS of live specimens; snakes, turtles, toads...

...and tons of books to look through....

....and....

Ellis County? Yeah, that's the county we were currently standing in. 

I much prefer this spider! 

Sternberg was a great museum! I only wished we lived closer; it was a 3 hour drive to get there but it was well worth it. 

We also visited the Old Ft. Hays which was right next to the railroad and served as a supply depot for the other forts in Kansas. But I'll share more about that later! 

Eiteljorg Art Museum, Indianapolis, Indiana

Friday,  I met my parents, sister, brother in law and cousin in Indianapolis to hit some museums. Our first stop was the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art downtown. This is my favorite art museum! My wonderful high school art teacher introduced it to me as a teenager, I took field trips later with my own students, and visited on my own a number of times as an adult. I was so excited now to be able to take my own children and share it with them.

Currently, there is a special exhibition of engraved pistols....amazing! They had a master engraver giving demonstrations and explaining the process (no pictures allowed :( ) But Annie Oakley was the big hit with my boys! A wonderful lady dressed up as Annie, explained about her life with Bill Cody and then, oh my goodness, allowed my boys to "shoot" her rifle!

Of course we looked at all the fantastic artwork too. Some of my favorites are O'Keefe, Couse, Russell and Remington, Terpning...I could go on and on.

Renovated since I was here last, the Eiteljorg  has added a stagecoach for kids to climb into and a saddle to check out. Very neat!!

We also went through the Indiana State Museum right next door. Between the two are giant slabs of, what I assume, is limestone. The boys loved climbing all over these...who wouldn't?

The bottom floor of the Indiana State Museum begins with the natural history of the state. Yip and his cousin even got to talk to an archeologist all about hunting mastadons.

Then there was the early historical period of Indiana. Yap was enchanted with a model of how the lock and canal system worked in early Indiana.

And here is my sister educating my cousin on the wonderful woman who was Maconaquah!

The State Museum also has a fantastic exhibit on Abraham Lincoln on loan from the Library of Congress but cameras weren't allowed inside. There are some amazing Lincoln documents in the exhibit! A must if you are in the area!

It was a beautiful day on Friday so after we were finished at the museums we walked down the White River State Park canal which was right out the back door of the museums. Hundreds of people were out that day on bikes and paddleboats. This little piece of downtown Indianapolis is packed with some wonderful attractions! Within walking distance from where we were there is also the baseball stadium and the zoo and so much more.  I love Indianapolis! Definitely a place to visit if you get the chance :)