Spring Break--Lindsay Wildlife Museum

We started our Spring Break with our good buddies Caleb and Evan.  Ana and I decided to we really wanted Chick-fil-a for lunch and a new one just opened in Walnut Creek, about an hour away.  So we needed to find some fun activity that was worth dragging the kids out that far...perfect, the Lindsay Wildlife Museum.  Let me just start out by saying how much I LOVE this little hidden gem.  Right off the bat, it's an animal hospital/rescue center...you can't go wrong with that.  But the museum was so fun, so informative, had perfect animal related activities for all ages, great programs that include some of the rescued animals AND the hospital is right on site so you can tour that as well.  Top to bottom, one of the best, most educational museums I've taken the kids to so far.  (not to mention it it's all of 4 mins away from the Chick-fil-a!)

Now, I'll get off my soapbox and show you around the place.  The first thing you see when you walk in is about 10 large live birds sitting in there perches, just hanging out.  All are rescued birds that they weren't able to release back to the wild.  Anything from owls, falcons, and a beautiful bald eagle.  There was a show starting on the bald eagle that we were all set to watch, but when it started flapping about Timo got a little nervous...I walked around with him while Cameron watched with Caleb and Evan.

We hung out in the "Flying Raptors" area a while learning all about giant birds.  Timo really like this flying falcon exhibit.  Your hands went over sensors and you leaned your body in which direction you wanted to fly, as you fly over the Bay Area.

 Lots of hands on activities, lots of live and stuffed animals to get close to and lots of learning going on at this place.

But my favorite part was the animal hospital.  They put on a demo every hour that shows a veterinarian working on a rescued animal...don't worry, nothing too graphic.  Our demo was feeding a baby finch bird that had dropped from it's nest and brought in.  It couldn't yet fly but was just days away from flying and being released back into the wild.  It's hard to see the bird on the screen, right pic, but it was pretty cool for the kids to see the whole thing as well as all the equipment and tools they use.

From the hospital we made our way to the kids play area where we thought our crew might be too old, but not so much.  They ended up playing about an hour in the area while Ana and I chatted like two ladies with no care in the world.  I don't have any pics of the play area, guess I was so relaxed watching them play...that's a sign of a great place to take your kids!