Montshire Museum of Science, Part 1 - Outdoors

Since I have so many photos of our time at the Montshire Museum of Science, I decided it would be best to break this topic into two parts. First, let's talk about outdoors at the museum and share a few of those photos.

We accessed the outdoor part of this science museum by way of one of the upper floors of the museum from quite a dizzying height! (I used to scale buildings and dizzying rock faces when my health was better but, since procuring Systemic Mastocytosis, I now find myself dizzy when just standing on my own two feet... and a step stool might as well be a tower. I have to say that the top floor balcony at the museum made me a little queasy!)

Exiting the museum from the second floor brought us out onto a deck and wood bridge. This long wooden bridge crosses over the driveway to the museum so we had already seen this bridge from our car when we were arriving at the museum. It is an impressive structure.

It is hard to see here because it is such a long distance but Lukey
is about 50' away, talking into this pipe, Kenzie is about 100'
away and Gee is about 150 feet away at the end of the bridge.

One of the first things we noticed was a handrail along one side of the wide bridge. Every 50 feet or so, there was an opening to this handrail..."No, wait... that isn't a handrail!"  Gee bent down and spoke into the opening, "HEELLLLOOOOO, Mackenzie!", her voice carrying to the other openings... Lukey and Kenzie instantly ran for their own opening... now everyone was trying to speak at the same time!

We go through this same problem the first time we break out the radios at the lake house each summer (for communication between the house and those of us out on the boats). The first time the kids try using the radios each summer, they are stepping all over each other as they both try to talk at the same time. Oddly enough... maybe it is a twin thing... they somehow manage to quickly find a rhythm, alternating one at a time. The same happened here on this bridge and they quickly found a polite rhythm of radio etiquette. 

"HEELLLLOOOOO, Lukey!" 

"Hey Geeeee... where are you?" as they both giggled into their own opening.

We then wandered down a couple of flights of wood staircases to access the rest of the outdoor grounds (by this point, stairs were killing my spine and my legs were ready to call it a day... plus it was hot and humid outdoors which is not good for my health... I was ready to get off my feet in someplace cool... however, we pressed forward, as always). 

We first came to a map of the grounds displayed on a large sign... I turned to Kenzie and asked, "So, which way should we go?"

As she pointed to a bird on the big map, she responded matter-of-factly, "We need to find a bird... and a frog..." and then ran farther down the path. So, we were now off to find a bird... and a frog... (as in my mind I was saying "uggg, we could be here forever").

They each dropped a ping-pong ball into a stream by using some contraption of cranks and elevators... then they followed their balls down the stream... over dams... then down a waterfall... 

They continued to follow their ping-pong balls down the stream....

I sent Lukey and Kenzie to a big pole down another path to press the button on the side of this pole... they'll press any button anyone asks them to with no questions nor hesitation... This button, however, started a misting shower over their heads!

Lukey found a bear in the woods and I think he thinks his name is "Teddy"...

Meanwhile, I asked Kenzie what she was doing in this tall grass and she said, "I'm looking for the bird and frog, Papa"... with a tone like, "what else would I be doing in this grass, silly?"

When we arrived back at the museum building, we found a series of pipes set up like a large xylophone... I handed each of them a mallet and they started making their own music...

The kids had a very enjoyable time outdoors on the grounds of the Montshire Museum of Science. Sheila and I were not all that impressed though. The grounds were in desperate need of attention... cleaning, raking, sweeping, and basic landscaping. It appeared as though it was abandoned long ago and now just the remnants of what used to be... so, it is safe to say that we found the outdoor grounds to be a bit of a disappointment.

Regardless, at four years old, the kids enjoyed themselves!  

Although, we never did find that bird and the frog...