Holiday Trees

 One of our family holiday traditions is seeing the decorated Christmas trees at the Museum of Science and Industry. If you're not familiar with them, each tree is decorated with motifs from a different country. (MSI also has displays honoring other holidays.) We went on Sunday, and my husband gave me permission to share some of his pictures of ornaments. (He's running a contest on his personal Facebook page to see who can correctly identify the most countries pictured here, so I'm not going to identify them in this post. (If I remember, I'll come back later to comment.)

No matter what holiday you celebrate, I hope you have a good one! I'll be back next week to summarize my reading for 2022.

Indianapolis Trip 2018: As Told by Stan, Rex, and Oscar

Rex: We're back! In case you've forgotten who we are--

Stan: How is that possible?

Rex: I'm Rex the brachiosaurus, this is Oscar the orca, and the loudmouth is Stan the T-Rex.

Stan: Hey!

Oscar: We're here to tell you about the trip our family took last week to Indianapolis, Indiana.

Stan: It was a short trip because Dad had to work Monday, and Mom had to work on Friday, but it was still a lot of fun.

Rex: Thanks again to Dad's cousin Alvin for letting us stay with him!

Oscar: I knew this town really liked whales when I saw this mural.

Rex: After a late lunch, we walked along the canal to see a memorial. The humans got wet, but at least we stayed dry.

Stan: Get to the good part, guys!

Rex: The highlight of the trip was The Children's Museum of Indianapolis. They have brachiosaurses peeking in!

Stan: Even better, I got to meet the T-Rex I was named for! He didn't say much to me, but I think he was impressed.

Oscar: I was more impressed that we got to visit the paleo lab.

Stan: Don't forget how we became terracotta warriors! And the street named for T-Rexes!

Rex: Hey, Oscar, don't you still owe us a root beer for that fight in the Coliseum?

Stan: Well, I'm still waiting for Stan to pour us tea.

Stan: No fair picking on the short-armed guy!

Oscar: Um, Rex, change the subject....

Rex: Unfortunately, the humans didn't take us for a paddleboat trip. They were worried we might get wet.

Oscar: I would have been just fine in salt water, but no, it was fresh water.

Stan: They also went to the Eiteljorg Museum and the Indiana War Memorial Museum without us.

Rex: And the kid went to a coin shop too.

Stan: You don't think he'd sell us, do you?

Oscar: Don't worry, Stan. Mom won't let him.

Rex: So, if you like dinosaurs and orcas, Indianapolis is your kind of town.

Oscar: See you soon!

Stan: Rahhhhrrrr!

Continuous Learning

Sometimes no matter how often you do something, there's still new things to learn about it. For instance, yesterday my family and I went to the Museum of Science and Industry. We're members, so we visit about two or three times a year. Whenever we go, we usually check out certain key exhibits, such as the U-505 submarine and the Coal Mine. I've lost track of how many times I've seen the U-505; in fact, I remember seeing it with my dad when I was a girl and the submarine was still outside. Although the basic story remains the same each time, every tour guide provides different details. Yesterday, the tour guide told us that the sub sank only eight merchant ships during its career, which was much lower than other German submarines. I asked the guide why this was, and apparently French saboteurs tinkered with the sub while she was in port so that she would break down quickly, shortening her patrols. In fact, this poor performance may have contributed to the suicide of one of the submarine's commanders in the control room--and I've never heard any tour guide talk about that. (That might be because it happened well before the sub's capture--or perhaps the guides don't want to discuss it in front of kids.)

Have you learned anything new about something you thought you already knew well? Feel free to share your story in the comments section.

Milwaukee Trip

My family and I took an overnight trip to Milwaukee this weekend. My son is on spring break, so we thought it would be nice to take a short trip somewhere, even if we do end up revisiting the same attractions. After checking into our hotel Saturday, we had dinner at the Milwaukee Public Market and bought some games at a store we went to the last time we were in the area.

Sunday, however, we managed to check out some new places. One of the main reasons we went to Milwaukee was to go to the Milwaukee Public Museum. Although it's not as big as some of the museums in Chicago, it has some interesting exhibits, we have reciprocity with our Field Museum membership, and Alex likes a type of candy sold at the museum that he can't find elsewhere. However, they didn't open until 11:00 a.m., which left us with some free time in the morning. We wound up going to the Mitchell Domes. Eugene and I went there a long time ago; Alex has never been there. They had a special event going on to celebrate the spring equinox this week, so in addition to touring the different habitats, Alex also got to pet snakes and llamas. (The top picture is a sculpture in the Desert Dome.)

The museum did have a special exhibit this time. It was on the Mayan culture. We toured that, along with the butterfly exhibit (you can see pictures from both exhibits), but we didn't go through as much of the museum as we normally do. Instead, we left a little early to go to a rock shop in one of the suburbs. My son picked up an arrowhead and a few fossils, then we returned home.

When you travel, do you like to explore new places or revisit familiar ones? Feel free to share in the comments.

Museums in Milwaukee

Milwaukee may not seem like a glamorous Spring Break destination, especially when the weather all weekend turns out to be cold and rainy. It's a good thing we were there to visit the museums. We went to the Milwaukee Public Museum, Discovery World, and the Milwaukee Art Museum. Thanks to reciprocity agreements with Chicago museums, we only had to pay admission to the Milwaukee Art Museum. Here are a few pictures from the trip:

This mammoth was found in the general area of the Milwaukee Public Museum.











The butterfly exhibit is my favorite part of the Milwaukee Public Museum.

 Part of the Crossroads of Civilization exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

 New residents at the aquarium at Discovery World.











Glass reflections at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

  Part of a paper art exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Museum.