North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is an impressive downtown museum that was fun for us to visit on our Raleigh vacation in August.

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, with a boy running across

Awesome quote on the way in

The ground floor shows many flora and fauna of North Carolina, including cute animals, adorable insects (like butterflies), and pretty birds. Naturally, we were drawn to the items below...

Venus fly trap

Red bat

Massive shark jaws

Fierce feline predator

Unassuming red drum fish

The first floor also shows some of the local sea and water life, including aquariums with fish, crabs, and other swimmers.

Water and land collide!

Tank with a hermit crab, among others

The second floor features a large room showing the various inland regions of North Carolina, including wetlands, savanna, and piedmont forests.

Beaver dam display is not too exciting to the toddler

Interactive exhibit!

They also explained the geology of the area, along with common minerals, like quartz and emerald, found in the region. They even explained what's in soil!

4 food groups of soil--Water, Air, Weathered Rock, Organic Material

A nearby tree was hollowed out and had a mirror up top so visitors shorter than me could see what it looked like to be a bat.

In the tree

More fun posing

Nearby was the most amazing exhibit of all--an exhibit about museums! It explains the collecting and processing of various items. The history of the museum is also explained. 

What is a museum?(!?)

Old-fashioned processing of specimens

Old-fashioned collecting of specimens

We found a favorite part of the museum, the dinosaur exhibit. One of the first items is a tyrannosaurus rex skull, which my children found off-putting.

T-rex about to get us

 The exhibit shows lots of skeletons in action.

Prowling predator

We even found a chart showing various species and their differences.

Divvying up the dinos

More dino action

Big foot of an herbivore

A special room has an exhibit on a locally-discovered dinosaur, the Acrocanthosaurus. The skeleton is only 54% real bone but it is the most complete example extant. Scientists studied the bones and saw the many different injuries that helped flesh out the lives of predators in the Cretaceous period. 

Acrocanthosaurus

On the top floor we found an exhibit devoted to insects, which was a bit scary for everyone.

Either pretending to be bugs, or hiding from bugs

Since the insect world is so small, many exhibits blew them up like a 1950s sci-fi horror film. We were not amused.

Bees defending their honeycomb

The top floor also has a living conservatory where many South American animals live. We saw a sloth, a tarantula, and a host of butterflies. We were told not to touch anything (easy to follow with the tarantula). The toddler was a little worried about the butterflies landing on him. Older brother and sister both had landings for which they were excited. The young one was happy to get out unassailed.

Butterfly garden

Tarantula behind glass

Hard to get a butterfly in focus with a toddler tugging on you

Butterflies, including a blurring flying one on the bottom left

We went back downstairs and watched Museum Alive 3D, a fun and imaginative look by David Attenborough at the contents of the London's Natural History Museum. The 3D glasses were too much for the toddler. When he's older, he'll appreciate them more.

Ready for the show

Me in 3D glasses over my regular ones

The poster

We had a fun visit to the museum, even without seeing the whole other wing across the street (with the space and genetics stuff). We did find a copy of the Liberty Bell on our way back to the car.

Inspiration for a Philadelphia trip?

Movie Review: Jurassic World (2015)

Jurassic World (2015) co-written and directed by Colin Trevorrow

Twenty years after the failed attempt at opening a dinosaur theme park with actual dinosaurs (in the original Jurassic Park), they've finally developed a thriving attraction, Jurassic World, that draws tens of thousands of people each day. The park is a big hit but it always needs something new, much like any other park that adds new rollercoasters or movie-themed rides. So the scientists and businessmen behind Jurassic World have concocted a new dinosaur to swell the attendance numbers--Indomitus Rex. It's mostly T-Rex with some other genetic material thrown in to make it bigger, scarier, and have "more teeth." Investors aren't 100 per cent confident the new dino is safely caged. They have the park's dino-taming expert Owen (Chris Pratt) inspect the pen of I-Rex, which of course isn't sufficient to hold in the creature. Pandemonium ensues with 20,000 tourists on the island, two of which are the nephews of Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), a director of the park who is too organized and busy to show the kids around. She has her assistant keep an eye on them while she deals with park management, including persuading corporate investors to sponsor exhibits. It's a race to reunite family members and keep people from dying.

The movie has some amazing special effects and exciting action sequences. Owen's main job (apparently) is taming raptors which he is pretty good at. The dinosaurs look impressive (no difference between animatronics and CG). Fights between humans and dinos are exciting as are those between the dinosaurs themselves.

Thematically, the movie is all over the place. Owen has a good working relationship with the animals, unlike Claire who looks at them as numbers on a spreadsheet. There's a brief flirtation with an animal rights theme but this movie is a big summer blockbuster that needs to get on with the action. Another character mocks the corporate sponsors of the new exhibit, which is funny until you realize the rest of the film is chock full of product placements, the motion picture equivalent of corporate sponsorship. The scientists are sort of depicted as bad guys, but fade out in the shadow of the "corporate security" people (led by Vincent D'Onofrio's character Hoskins) who want to use the dinos for military applications. They are the sort of one-dimensional baddies you expect to see on a poorly written Doctor Who or Star Trek episode. The movie is a big summer blockbuster, so there's no real need for that sort of depth.

I found the movie entertaining but light-wieght. It's like cotton candy--pretty to look at and sweet-tasting but no nutritional value whatsoever. The occasional sweet treat is perfectly fine.

Montpelier Mansion--Exterior

Montpelier Mansion was built in the 1780s by Major Thomas Snowden, a wealthy landowner in Prince George's County. The estate originally covered 9000 acres including tobacco fields and barns, slave quarters, and workshops for various craftsmen. Snowden partially owned the iron works on the Patuxent River. The family owned the estate until 1890. It went through various hands and various reductions until it was given to the Maryland-National Capital Park &; Planning Commission in 1961.

The house is an example of the "five-part Georgian" style with a central building connected by two "hyphens" to two wings.

Montpelier Mansion

Just off of the house is the colonial revival herb garden. It's guarded by a picket fence and follows the plan of early 1800s gardens, including the oyster shell chaff pathways.

Colonial revival herb garden

Across the lawn is the "Belvedere" or summer house where the ladies would take their tea or the children would shelter from rain during the summer.

Summer house

The Carriage House was originally the stables for the estate, later the garage. Now it has an exhibit on dinosaurs in Maryland, including information about Dinosaur Park which we had previous visited.

Carriage house

Fun dinosaur exhibit

The more educational side of the exhibit

Rebuilding a t-rex

The Art Center includes several galleries and artists' studios. We didn't go in on this visit but maybe in the future.

Art Center

The next post goes inside the mansion!

Dinosaur Park, Laurel, Maryland

Dinosaur Park is a little gem hidden just off Route 1 in southern Laurel, Maryland. A small mound of rock juts out from the ground, seemingly unremarkable, except for the age of the rock. It dates back 115 million years to when the area was a swamp. The rock itself was the floor of the swamp. A lot of flora and fauna was caught in the muddy bottom. That mud turned to rock and lasted to this day. Back in the mid-1800s (AD), the area was mined for iron ore. Some miners found dinosaur bones and other fossils, drawing the interest of geologists and paleontologists. The craze died down when the iron ore industry died out (it's always easier when someone else does your digging!). Interest revived in the 1980s and in 2009 local government protected the area from being developed and from unrestricted collectors. The area is called Dinosaur Park and is open on the first and third Saturdays of the month from noon to 4 p.m.

View from the street is not so impressive

In case you need the address!

We went on the first Saturday in July, which was pretty hot. The park naturally doesn't have air conditioning but L found a shady spot under the information signs.

L shelters underneath...

...J's reading!

J read about Astrodon johnstoni, the official Maryland state dinosaur. Teeth and bones from johnstoni were found here, including a leg bone that was the length of the sign! The dinosaur was named "Astrodon" by Christopher Johnston, a member of the Maryland Academy of Sciences in the late 1800s. He chose the name because the teeth found had a star pattern in their cross section. "johnstoni" was added later to recognize his contribution.

Maryland's official dinosaur

We started our exploration of the site with a short lecture from one of the scientists about the history of the area. She showed us some samples of lignite (fossilized wood) and ore rock.

J examines the lignite

A rock with fossil imprints (at least according to the scientist)

After a quick list of things not to do (no digging or climbing--the area is strictly for discovery by picking things up), we moved inside the gates. We had another explanation of the prehistoric environment. The scientist there showed us the various fossils we might find.

Entering the dig!

Scientist with samples

Actual fossils in the case and a cast of a dino skull

With a few more warnings, we were let loose on the hill. We explored all over the hill, often finding rocks that looked like they might be fossils. As soon as we'd ask one of the scientists (in green vests), they'd check it and say, "Well, that's a cool rock but not a fossil." L and J were very curious and checked all over. Finally, L hit pay dirt--a fossilized redwood cone!

Looking in the corner

Looking near the hillside

L makes a discovery!

L's fossil

The fellow took L's name and my contact information and put the fossil in a ziplock bag. It will be taken to the main collection, examined, and cataloged. L was very excited and J was very jealous. The weather soon got too hot for us and we went to Chick-fil-A for a congratulatory snack.

Ice cream for L, cookie for J, lemonade for Daddy

Visiting Dinosaur Park is a fun (and free) way to spend an afternoon. We recommend it!