Tuesday, December 23, 2008

A Milwaukee Favorite

Yesterday, I went with Munchkinhead, Alfred and Nathy-Boo to the Milwaukee Public Museum.  We love the museum and have been going regularly since we were little.  Well, not Nathy-Boo, he's from Nebraska, not Milwaukee.  Anyway, it was a lot of fun.

We saw the traveling Titanic exhibit with real artifacts from the Titanic.  It was kinda freaky in some places, especially where it made it seem like we were under water.  When we entered the exhibit, we each got a card with a real passenger on it and at the end got to see if we survived or not.  I didn't; Nathy-Boo didn't; but Alfred and Munchkinhead did.

three girls at the planitarium We also went to a planetarium show about the Christmas Star.  It was really interesting.  Before the movie, a guy comes out and does a planetarium show with stars on the IMAX dome.  I was super excited because Orion is currently visible late at night.  That's my favorite constellation and he isn't always visible in the Northern Hemisphere.

katrina looking at the Doctor's office in the SoOM We all have our favorite parts of the museum.  I love the Streets of Old Milwaukee, though we got there 15 minutes after the little candy shop closed.  (That's ok though because St. Nick brought us Violets, Necco Waffers katrina through one of the european houses in the villageand popcorn balls!  And Mommy has clove and cinnamon ribbon candy already.)  Wendy loves the European Village,  which is currently decorated for the holidays, including the spinning Polish katrina and howler monkeyChristmas tree hanging high up in the town square.  (It's upside-down.)  Katrina loves seeing the monkeys, sloths and bats in the Rainforest.  Sadly, the Howler Monkey wasn't working. :(   (Those pics are from last year's visit.)

Other favorites include the T-Rex eating the Triceratops, the walk-in igloo and of course the movies: How to Dig a Hole To the Other Side of the World and the Dinosaurs movie. 

Another, recently fun addition to the museum is listening to Alfred tell us what's wrong with exhibits.  She is, as she put it when saying perhaps we shouldn't put our glasses on those skulls, an emerging museum professional.  She'll graduate in May with a masters in Museum-something-or-other.  I know she hates the errors in the 28 year old claymation dinosaur video, but what really irks her is the prehistoric mammal collection.  Apparently,  there isn't much right in that exhibit and it needs to be updated based on some "new" discoveries that were made in 1992.  She gets especially annoyed when they mess up things on the prehistoric rhinos and other creatures she knows a lot about.  Oh well, I still like the museum.  (Although, I'd like it better if the gift store still sold Astronaut ice cream!)

So what do you do at a museum you've gone to so often you notice when something's been moved?  Well, besides visiting all your favorite places, looking for what's changed, and, if your Wendy, pointing out what's wrong, you act out the exhibits!

totem poles

Totem pole at the top of the now down (once up) escalator to the second floor.

 

nathan and skulls with glasses

Skulls at the entrance to Latin America.

 

bird and beaver

Big bird catching a beaver in North America.

 

wendy being the curator

1950s Museum curator.

 

nathan the mask

Mask, I think in Latin America exhibit.

 

me as cactus

Cactus.

 

katrina being baby bear

Poor baby bear is being attacked by bees!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

my fav picture from this year has got to be the bird and beaver and then the skulls one!

MaryRuth said...

You guys are lucky you didn't get kicked out! I have a post card in my ancient "scrap book" from Streets of Old Milw. That candy store was cool.
What about the "dioramas"? I remember the hoopla when they were opened. Those are my favorites.

goldenrail said...

Munchkinhead, I agree with you.
MR: shhhhh... don't tell ;) What are the dioramas? It's possible they're still there, but I usually think of many of the exhibits as dioramas.

MaryRuth said...

The one diorama I remember best is of Milwaukee when it was a Native American settlement.
But I think there was one of a buffalo hunt too.

goldenrail said...

Yup, those are still there. The buffalo hunt one has a "secret" hidden button that makes the snake rattle.

Anonymous said...

The Howler Monkey was repaired and all the sound effect players were updated to the newest technology so the sound quality is better than ever. New music was added to the European Village for the countries that were missing. And the Hell Creek exhibit was updated with a new subwoofer system that makes the Dinosaur come to life.

goldenrail said...

Annon, thank you! Oh sisters of mine, looks like we need to go to the museum again soon! Sunday, July 12th anyone?