Dollar Days Are Worth More

You might recall that I mentioned Tuesdays in August are "Dollar Days" at the local natural history museum during last Friday's weekly wrap-up.  Every year, we try to take advantage of the savings, which for our family is over thirty dollars, making it well worth the trip.  Last week, we ventured out to visit. 

We arrived a few minutes before it opened, and the children decided to play with the scattered statues on the front lawn.

{turtle love}

{wild boar dislike}

Inside, the special exhibit was "Earth from Space,"

with neat images of planet earth like this one of the Lana Delta,

and a few extra displays of astronaut suits and our state's space rock, courtesy the Apollo 17 Mission and Nixon's request in 1972.

From the moon rock, we walked to the rocks and minerals from earth display.  Our children liked this Apophyllite from Pashan Quarry in Poona, India the best.  Some thought it looked like a hamburger, others a cake. 

The dinosaur and bird room was next.  A "Snail Trail" went through each display in a kind of  "Where's Waldo?" search.

The children found each snail, and then devised their own game of finding all the birds listed in each display, and then determined there were too many eggs to count in the egg display.

  
They measured their heights against the elephant bird mural to see just how tall they were compared to this extinct bird.  According to the museum, these birds were last seen in the 1600's on the island of Madagascar.

Once we all realized how incredibly short we were in comparison {yes, I measured myself too}, we walked a hallway with this amazing mural.

The next room was for mammals and an African Water Hole display.  Our youngest daughter decided to immerse her hand into the dung beetle display.  {She had fun telling Daddy what she put her hand into at dinner that night.}

Finally, we reached the shell gallery and coral reef display.  It was here I found the neatest shell: a thorny oyster.

Our children were fascinated with the snails that made it to Chicago's drinking water in the late 1800's.  I was thankful for modern day filters.

Then, our dung beetle adventurer happily posed by the giant clam.

On the way out, the children asked to do the wild boar scavenger hunt.  Around the base of the animal are many small critters like frogs and crabs, waiting to be found. 

Though we only spent the morning there, it was well worth more than a dollar a piece to go.