Natural History Museum - A Zoo for things that used to be alive.

Yesterday, I took the family to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

It was a lot of good fun! Big enough for a day's venture with the kids, and not too busy on a Friday this time of year.

Naturally, there was plenty of evolutionary content to be ignored, but the dinosaur exhibits and everything were really nice!

Also, I'd not realized that Cleveland has really got a couple of 'celebrities' there;

We saw "Lucy" of diminutive-prehuman fame...

(though her real bones are back in Ethiopia now)

We saw a moon rock...

(it was not made of cheese)

We saw the first Foucault's Pendulum to be electromagnetically assisted...

(interestingly, and quite permanently positioned directly blocking a fire hose panel)

but perhaps the biggest thrill,

We saw Balto.

The real thing!

(Well, his posthumously posed self.)

And he doesn't look like this...

(and the real story is much more interesting than the movie - though much less romantic - see link below)

And his statue in Central Park, NYC isn't perfect either...

(but, to be fair, its devoted to ALL the sled dogs as well as just the star of today's show...)

This is what Balto looks like today:

And this is a shot taken in his prime...

Here's the full story on the Museum website.

Naturally, I was the only one really excited about Balto within 50 feet at the time. If not for my 1 year old on my shoulders at the time, I think that I may've creeped out a set of high school girls who were remembering the movie version of the story in bits and pieces, as I told them to go to the same web-site that I'm encouraging you to see (above).

Well, the point of this post wasn't supposed to be Balto, but its not a bad point.

...better than something about Jay Leno, I suppose. And much more educational.

...

Dinosaurs!

We have a family membership at the Cleveland Zoo. Its great!

So this last Friday we packed everyone up for our first* full-family zoo adventure of the season, and we found THIS!!!

*We've actually been to the Toledo Zoo already this year, but the hometown zoo counts for the real 'first'.

Meghan's comment after viewing the above 'movie' was simply;

"I can't believe you spent all this time on that."

Thanks dear.

As we walked through the Dinosaur section of the zoo, I realized two things:

1) That I really liked dinosaurs as a kid, and I still kinda do.

2) That I had absolutely no interest in reading the signs.

I'll probably read those signs on a later visit this summer, but for now I just wanted to appreciate the beauty of the natural/animatronic world.

The signs just confuse things anyhow. Palentologists have changed all the dinosaur names two or three times since I was a kid... and I think they had something to do with downgrading Pluto from its planet status as well. I figure it's all about the marketing.

Those signs also force the whole issue of the age of the earth. Its tough to read to your kid that, "The Laziguanasaurus lived in what is now Chile about 1.5 jillion years ago" ...and then explain that the sign, though likely accurate on many points (like the part about Chile), isn't quite in the 'hard facts' category when it comes to the timeline. You're supposed to be able to trust those signs... but that's what a Christian deals with when dipping the toes into the scientific world.

Speaking of trust... Here's a serious 'Jurassic Park' moment for you:

"But I don't understand, Mr. Hammond said that the park was perfectly safe..."

We heard this poor child say something about "being a dentist for the dinosaur"

...our sympathies to those who knew him.

This guy was in the entirely wrong section of the zoo. Not even close to the other dinosaurs.

So appaling! They treat him as if he weren't even real!

...

Ben's lack of un-birthdays

That famous song from Mad Tea Party talks about how we've all got 364 "un-birthdays", and that those days should be celebrated. However, my son does not have 364... for him its been more like 356.

Ben turned three this week, and as the custom has been (at least its worked out this way three times now) we celebrate his birth for about a week straight. [Which is very fun for almost everyone, but tends to create drowsiness, late bedtimes, and unsightly half-dead balloons.]

Since we live a distance from his grandparents/aunts/uncles/etc. - and since their schedules are invariably as busy as ours - it works out that a birthday week usually occurs. One set of grandparents one weekend, a weekday birthday with Mom & Dad, then another weekend of grandparents. With all sorts of fun events and festivities packed in-between... its a true festival!

However, as a side effect, we end up with a temporary version of one of the kids that got kicked out of Wonka's factory. All of the unceasing attention and happy spoilings can turn any little Charlie into Veruca Salt even if for just a little while.

Don't get me wrong, our kid is great - and I certainly enjoy the visits from our folks... (don't not come if you guys read this... we have a blast!) But I think that every parent knows that this is why that Mad Tea Party was indeed so mad. It has nothing to do with the mercury in the Hatter's blood... its just crazy to imagine a constant celebration.

So you'll please excuse me, but I need to get some work done before I go home to rest. You see we're going to the zoo tomorrow, and it's Senior Safari Day. (Oh yes! This is going to be amazing-awesome!) With special trams to transport those "55 and better" as well as a health-fair and booths from wide and varied groups ranging from the AARP to the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office.

...and down the rabbit hole we go!