Spring Break- Night at the Museum, pt 1

Monday, after we left the zoo, the kids and I went to the hotel and checked in. It was a large hotel, but older, and it had an indoor pool. That was one of the things I wanted, so the kids could enjoy their hotel time as well. After they had swam for almost an hour, we got dressed again, and left to go to the Grand Rapids Public Museum.

The museum is normally only open until 5, but this week, they had a night time special- for $10 each, you got entrance to the museum (normally $5 for kids, $8 for adults), Unlimited Carousel rides (normally $1 per ride, per person), a planetarium show (normally $3 each), plus a free kid friendly meal at the cafe (normally $5-7 each). If you have a membership to the museum, it was only $5/person instead of $10.

I wound up purchasing a membership, because the public museum is one of my favorite places to go. I love museums, and finding new things. The membership allows me free entrance to numerous other museums, plus a 10% discount at the museum shop and the cafe, and all planetarium shows are free.

The museum is large, and due to long lines at the cafe, and planetarium show time, we did not get to finish seeing everything we wanted to before closing at 9pm.

Because I literally took almost 400 photos just at the museum, I'll break the posts down to highlight a few of our favorite areas.

First, my personal favorite- Gaslight Village. Actually, this exhibit was renamed "The Old Streets of Grand Rapids" back in 1994 when they opened the new museum. In the old museum, where it was at when I grew up, it was called Gaslight Village.

Several of these store fronts unlock to open up. During the day, museum volunteers man 1 or 2 shops at a time, explaining bits and pieces about the store, the items found in them, and things like prices back during the time when the streets of Grand Rapids looked like this.

One of my favorite shops is the printing press. They have a working 1880 manual printing press that they demonstrate how to use, and print up knowledge based bookmarks for the various shops, and for other exhibits in the museum. They show you hot to set the type, and how printing meant doing each one several times if there are more than 1 color involved. It's fun to see them working!

Because of the night hours, there were no volunteers in the shops that night, but it's still fun to peer through the windows!

Spring Break- The Zoo

For a quick get away, I took our three children to a large town about an hour away, and had a brief over night get away. I didn't have much money to spend, so I focused on keeping things frugal, as I would have done even if I had extra money to spend. ;)

We arrived just after noon, and went straight to the zoo. This is the zoo I grew up going to, but I haven't taken the kids to since Gilly was about 2. I just never seem to have the time when we are over there!

I may have underestimated to myself just how busy the zoo would be, and busy it was. Spring break happens either the week before Easter or after, for almost all the schools in the area. Well, that makes for 2 very busy weeks of activities.

Monday was gorgeous- clear blue skies, and fantastic weather, which made for a very packed zoo. It may have been even more so due to the impending bad weather the area was set to have for the rest of the week. Ah, well. We still had fun.

Last fall, Grand Rapids became home to a wonderful new art contest called Art Prize. The sculpture behind the kids is one of the entries from the contest- the Loch Ness Monster. He was relocated to the pond in front of the zoo after the contest, though he is showing signs of wear.

We had 1 down moment during the zoo, which was the result of Chris doing something dumb, and a woman being very rude and over reacting greatly to it.

While I was waiting in line to order lunch (which wasn't exactly frugal, but wasn't any more expensive than McDonalds), Chris stomped a ketchup packet. It splatted a woman on the bare leg. I didn't see it happen, but she came over to me and asked if he was my son. When I said he was, she went on and on about what happened, showing me her leg in the process. I apologized and said I would talk to him, then called him over to me. I told him to not do that, explained that it was rude, and told him to go apologize to the woman.

He did. She, on the other hand, did not accept it. She rolled her eyes and said very loudly, "Oh, whatever." From there, she turned to a group of people and a zoo employee, and again very loudly, started to talk about how rude kids are, and how horrible it is that "SOME PARENTS" can't keep an eye on their kids, or control them.

Never mind that I had A) apologized to her, B) talked to him, C) made HIM apologize to her, and D) kept him next to me for the rest of the time I waited in line. She just didn't care- it was like we had ruined her day by getting ketchup splatted on her.

Now, yes, I know Chris shouldn't have done that, which is why I talked to him about it, kept him near me, and made him apologize. But, her reaction was like World War 3 had just started, and life as she knew it was OVER.

It really brought down the mood while we ate. Just as we were finishing up, another woman came over, and said, "I really hope you and your kids aren't too embarrassed over how that woman acted. She really over reacted to the whole thing, and was very rude to both you and your children over it. It's a zoo, kids come to the zoo, and sometimes they do things they shouldn't. It isn't the end of the world."

I about started to cry, because I was embarrassed. Chris was, too, given how the woman acted when he apologized for what he had done.

Anyway, that was the only low point to the zoo. We had a lot of fun, and it was a perfect day for it!

Easter 2010

We are heading out of town for a quick Spring Break get away Monday morning. I'll be back on Wed, but in the mean time, I do have Talented Tuesday set to post Monday evening.

In the mean time, here are a few photos from our Easter! Keep in mind, I'm no Betty Crocker. ;)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, and an enjoyable (or enjoyed, if it's passed by already!) Spring Break!

See you guys on Wednesday!