Tellus

Here's a picture of Mommy, Madison, and Rexy.  We made the journey over to Cartersville today to visit the Tellus Museum once again, a trip we made about four years ago.  This morning we woke up a little later, but that's okay, because the trip over to Cartersville only took us a little over an hour.  It was a beautiful day, and not that bad of a drive at all.

And so we were back, in somewhat of a September tradition for us.  We wanted to go back to a museum, and this was our choice today.  You an see Madison and Mommy here in front of a replica of the Wright Brothers plane.  This is one of the last stops in the museum if you go from left to right, which is what we did.

Madison chose to go to the rooms to the left first, which had all kinds of rocks and minerals in them.  Above, you can see a fluorescent rock in the room with the ultraviolet lights.  Someone smoothed this one out, so it sort of looks like a bowling ball you'd use on Cosmic Bowling night.

Of course, the star attractions at these museums are the ginormous skeletons.  Here's Madison in front of some huge jaws that show you the size of a megalodon.  Fun fact:  some people think megalodons are still around, as in not extinct.  Sort of like Nessie, Champ, or Old Greeny.

Beyond the triceratops skull, you can see Madison falling for the old "touch this old fossil and then read what it is you just touched" trick.

Yep, it was dinosaur poop.  This will be talked about for a while now, as Madison loved this.  She had Daddy come over to "fall for it" as soon as she could.  Of course, he was putting his hands all over the dinosaur poop, and she was just loving it.  She lifted the little door there and shouted, "You just touched dinosaur poop!"

There is plenty to do at the Tellus Museum, especially if you're a kid.  Madison was doing all kinds of physics experiments, and yes, sticking her head into those picture holes as always.  She was panning for gems again too.

But this next thing is what she was really enjoying a lot:

She was acting like a paleontologist with a little brush, pushing away sand to reveal the fossilized skeletons beneath the surface.  This started out completely covered, and there she was by herself on this one, carefully removing the sand to expose some sort of large fossil.  She had a great time with this!

Hold on.  This giant sloth skeleton wants to say something.  Okay, not really, but one of the things that this museum has, something that is very important for kids, is giant skeletons.  You have to have giant skeletons in a museum.  The other stuff is interesting, but without giant skeletons, you're not a real museum, right?

Ah, there's Rexy again.  Imagine this guy coming to life every night as the museum hours close down, and all the visitors go home.  Throw the bone, indeed!

By the way, we did get to collect some old fossils:  ancient shark teeth, crinoid stems and a sand dollar.  Daddy, Madison and Mommy were digging for those in the sand there.  Just past the digging section, there were all sorts of older vehicles and the astronaut section.  Having just come from Kennedy Space Center, we enjoyed the space stuff, but honestly, we've seen better!

The old motorcycles were cool.  The shadows projected on the wall by the motorcycles were pretty neat too:

There was a history section that told the story of the Indians that lived in this area.  It was here that we made a fun picture, probably Daddy's favorite of the trip:

Oh, and there was a new sonic section.  No, not like the Sonic restaurant.  This was an area that was all about sound waves, a place where we could learn about sounds and do some hands-on experiments.  One such place was the "Scream Chamber" that we all tried:

And after that, we were at the Planetarium.  This is an extra fee for a movie, one that is shown on the screens of the planetarium.  We had a few to choose from, but the one with the theme of the eclipse was what we ultimately went for - Madison chose that one.  Part of the idea was to experience an eclipse, but having just done that a few weeks ago, it's hard to replicate.  It's impossible.  We did learn a bit about Einstein, and bending light.  Madison said this planetarium was just like the one she visited last spring at North Georgia College (or whatever it is called these days - it's changed names a few times).

We were there about three or four hours, and everyone had a good time.  And we all learned something new, which is the point of it all.  This won't be our last visit!