16 February 2016

Balboa Park: Museum of Man, Museum of Art, & the Fountain

Day two of the boys' week off of school:  after my doctor's appointment in the morning we headed down to Balboa Park because each Tuesday San Diego County residents can get in to certain museums for free. Today the Museum of Man and the Museum of Art are the free ones (it just happens to be the first time we've come on the 3rd Tuesday of he month, since this is our first time at these museums).
We started out at the Museum of Man with their exhibit about monsters and mythical creatures from around the world. I thought that exhibit was fine, and the boys enjoyed it.
Then we went upstairs and waited in line for our turn to go into the ancient Egypt exhibit. The boys passed the time waiting in line playing a game they called Double Up 7.
I enjoyed this one, and so did Kolby since he recently studied Egypt in school. Beyond the mummy exhibit was a children's interactive Egypt room, which was great for the kids. They got to put together a life size mummy sarcophagus puzzle, plan for an archeologist excavation trip, dig for some little artifacts, build a model pyramid, and dress up in Egyptian clothing. A very simple little space that was fun for them.
And it reminded me of my childhood dreams of being an archeologist. Now I want to go home and find them some cool educational movies about archeology, and maybe even create our own little "dig site" in the back yard before our landscaping starts in a few more weeks. :)

Next we briefly checked out the Museum of Art. Once I informed them that they couldn't touch anything in this museum, the boys weren't too excited to do much more than walk through a couple of the rooms. They did stop to comment about a painting of David with the head of Goliath, though.
We would have been in this museum only a total of about 5 minutes, except the boys stopped in at a room called "the studio" where they could try out drawing their own art and we stayed for a while. 

Last, but not least, we finally went to the place Camden has been asking about all day long: the fountain.
Even though we have passed other children splashing and playing in this fountain numerous times over the years, I don't think I've ever let the boys play in it before. This time we came prepared with towels awaiting them in the car. But when we arrived at the fountain we were met by signs saying no one is allowed to get in the water. Oh well. Time to head home. 


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