Museum of Life and Science and Old Friends

Since Timo got to go to his army museum, we picked out this really great science museum for Cameron. The Museum of Life and Science in Durham is such a perfect museum for little scientist.  We met one of my oldest friends, Leigh Anne, and her two daughters.  We try to get together each year when I come home but I wasn't sure it was going to work out this year.  We both did a little tweaking of our schedules and made it work!

We had been to this museum before, I think when the kids were about 3, and one thing I remembered was the Dinosaur Trail.  The kids had no memory of it so Cameron was discovering it for the first time and loved it.  She knew each dinosaur before we read any of of the descriptions and went into all sorts of details about each one...her excitement was infectious.

We spent time at the fossil digging area, Butterfly House and outdoor music center before heading inside to discover.

So much to do inside!  One of the coolest was this microscope hooked up to a video camera recording a caterpillar eating a leaf, right in front of you!  You could see it with your naked eye but you could see each chomp and teeth marks with the microscope and hear each chomp.  There were so many hands on exhibits to do, we spent about 5 hours at the museum.  So long so that we had many areas to ourselves because it was close to closing!

Since Timo got to pick out a survivor at the Ft. Bragg Museum, Cameron go to choose something from the science museum...so she choose butterfly wings.  Wings that she lived in for the next few weeks!

A sign of a good day...the kids were out soon after leaving as I searched out a place for dinner.  I wasn't expecting to stay that long so it was too late to make the long drive back without some food.

We settled on Cheesecake Factory which happen to be close to my favorite ice cream shop as a kid, Goodberry's.  My non-ice cream loving son just had a cone while Cameron and I finished off a chocolate chip concrete!  This picture was taken around 9pm at night...I just love hanging out on warm summer nights with the kids!