Tellus Science Museum

In celebration of our recent museum theme at KidPak, we decided to take a trip to Cartersville to visit a museum we've never been to before:  The Tellus Science Museum.  We were slightly hesitant at first about making the trip over there, but as you can see in just one picture above, it was worth it.  Giant dinosaur skeletons roamed the hallways, and you had to be careful.  And oh, as you can see below, you definitely need to watch your step!

Daddy has always wanted Madison to go to a dig site for dinosaur fossils, and there at Tellus, there is a wonderful area for kids to brush away the dirt and reveal ancient fossilized skeletons.  Madison was enjoying this moment, and we could have left her there for an hour, and she'd be quite content.  In fact, here's our little paleontologist, hard at work:

Tellus Museum honestly has the edge on Fernbank.  While we enjoyed our visit to Fernbank, this museum in Cartersville had a bit more to capture the imagination of children - and big kids like Daddy. For one, there were a lot more dinosaur skeletons roaming about.

There were giant fish skeletons, a dimetrodon, a T-Rex, a mammoth, a mosasaurus, a sauropod, a few raptors - oh, and check out the size of these jaws:

Cue the "Jaws" theme now.  Note the size of this shark, based on the diagram on the bottom left hand side of the picture.  Yes, the one showing a shark bigger than a school bus.

But there was a lot more to this museum than just ginormous skeletons and fossil pieces.  The "cars to planes to rockets" exhibit was fantastic.  Of course, there was the obligatory place for Madison to put her head through a hole and pose:

She's ready to go to Space Camp!  Also, what a coincidence:  we've been talking a lot about the Wright Brothers recently, and here's Orville now.  Or is it Wilbur?  I don't know which one it is that was hanging on below, but what a feeling he must have had.

Imagine being the first to fly in an airplane, ever.  Years later, we were riding in one over to China and back.  And speaking of China, there was a little of China in the museum too - completely unplanned.

While there, we went to the planetarium.  This would be Madison's first trip to a planetarium.  We sat down for a children's show - a Sesame Street presentation about the stars in the sky.  Little did we know that they'd be getting a visit from a character from China.  This character was teaching everyone Chinese phrases, and showing us all that the same stars we see here are the ones we see in China too.  It was a really sweet special touch on the day, really.

Oh, and here's something else we got to do.  Madison and Daddy did some panning for gems!

We didn't strike gold, but our earnings weren't too shabby either.  We got a little plastic bag that we got to keep, one filled with the tiny gems we found after sifting through all the sand.  As for the "sifting" part, I'm afraid Madison got a little wet!  But it was all fun, and we certainly had time to dry out.  We visited a few of the other galleries.  One was designed for children to learn from interesting experiments involving magnetism, weather, pressure, light and even electricity.  She could have spent hours in that big room.  Her favorite part was the weather area, where the sky above would suddenly start raining or snowing (it was a screen, which occasionally played loud thunder).

The geology area was incredibly impressive.  Madison kept creating her own earthquakes, and marveling at the magnificent specimens on display.

But like with all things, soon it became time to return home.

This is a remarkable gem, pardon the pun.  We didn't have huge expectations, and to be honest, were only lured over there by a pretty good sized discount.  The idea of going to a museum during this series was strong, as was our desire to see Madison explore and learn.  All three of us were very impressed with what we saw, and on top of all that, the drive wasn't that bad today.  It was a great and memorable trip, and we're so very glad we went.  In fact, I can almost guarantee that we'll be back.

It's time to turn in for the night.  But one more thing before shutting things down here:  Just outside in the parking lot, we were tempted to drive home another vehicle.  But Madison didn't think so:

I told her she'd have to sit in the back!