Harvard

We spent a perfect day on the Harvard campus and all around Boston today.

We packed a picnic lunch and headed out right after breakfast. We didn't hit any traffic and because we left so early, we were some of the first people into the museum. In fact, we even got a prime (and free!) parking spot right across the street. If you've ever been to Boston, you know that parking is not only a major pain but it's also expensive. It's not uncommon to spend $25-30 to park for an event, even if you only stay for a few hours. Also a bonus was the "free admission for Massachusetts residents" on Sunday mornings.

We started out in the geology area and admired all of the various rocks, brightly colored crystals and even meteorites and asteroids.

Pyrite - "Fool's Gold"

The family in front of a giant amethyst

And then Amanda took one of us in front of the quartz display.

Next we cruised through the section on global warming, but not before Amanda sat down in front of the monitors and voted on several important global issues.

We proceeded to the areas about Latin American, Pacific Islands, and Native Americans. The kids were fascinated by the miniature displays of temples, villages and 'tiny people.'


I was fascinated by the shark tooth weapons and jewelry. Liam had a fondness for the Mayan masks, although he kept saying,"Scared!" He'd run away for a little bit and then go right back to them and stare.


At lunchtime, we ate a picnic lunch in the van because it was a little too cold to sit outside at the picnic tables. We'll definitely have to come back in the spring. It is a gorgeous campus with all of its brownstone buildings.


After lunch, we returned to the museum and much to the kids' delight, we finally made it to the animal and dinosaur exhibits. Butterflies, arthropods, beetles, birds, more birds, and every zoo animal imaginable were there. Amanda and Liam touched a giant millipede, but Eva wouldn't have any part of it. That may have been the most surprising part of the whole day!

Here each of the kids pose with their favorite display, although for the girls, they couldn't pick just one. I also let them each choose a postcard to send to Grandma Jo, Grandpa Clint and Grandma Reda. (Amanda had hers written out a mere 5 minutes after we left the museum.)

Amanda loved the iridescent blue butterfly.

Eva found her favorite animal, the cheetah.

And Liam roared when he saw the tiger.

Unfortunately we didn't see any pterodactyl skeletons (though we DID see a Pteranodon, which the girls know from the PBS program Dinosaur Train.) And much to Liam's dismay, there were no T. Rex's. However, we did drive past the Museum of Science later in the day and saw the giant T. Rex display outside the main building so that made him happy.

After three hours, the kids were done. (Amanda told me that her brain was smoking from all of the new things she had learned.) We made a quick pit-stop at an upscale neighborhood bakery so we could grab a coffee - the best iced americano I've had in a while. With the hope that one or two kids would fall asleep, we took a scenic drive down Storrow Drive, past the Charles River, and through the MIT campus before heading home.
It was such an awesome day that we have made tentative plans to return to Boston next weekend, on SuperBowl Sunday, to the Children's Museum.