Capital City

Last Saturday I felt like I should gather the troops and get out of the house so Chuck could have some quiet study time. We may have to scatter every Saturday until the semester is over:) And since we are practically in Raleigh, there are lots of things to see and do and alot of them are free! Even better! The boys have been on some field trips with school to the Capital building downtown and to some of the museums but I hadn't so I thought it would be interesting to check it all out. We spent about 7 hours exploring the NC Museum of Natural Sciences and the Museum of History. The buildings are side by side and near the Capital and Legislative buildings.

Since Noah was familiar with the Museum on Natural Sciences, I asked him to be our tour guide. He was excited to point out his favorite exhibits, which included the dinosaurs and the butterfly observatory.

The dinosaurs are in a room that's completely windows. Just outside is the Legislative building...

Here's what Natalie would look like if she were an insect:)

Then we checked out all the snakes! Natalie said one "sizzled" at her:)

One Saturday a month, they host Science Saturday and bring in special guests and exhibits. I had done some research and found that they would be bringing in a burmese python on the day we were visiting... that's partly why I thought the kids would enjoy going.

They were excited...

Then the excitement wore off for some... Noah wanted to sit by the door "in case the snake attacks." Natalie got a little nervous and kept asking if the snake was "trained." I had to explain that some animals can't be trained BUT the people that work with the animals are trained in what to do and how to care for them. That seemed to pacify her enough. We sat through a slide show and a very informative 45 talk about the migration of these pythons and lots of stats... by this time the kids were sighing and sighing and asking "When are they going to bring it out of the box?"

They finally brought out the 14' python. They had several workers who held it and others who kept the visitors from getting too close. Not that I would get close! We were reminded that while he isn't poisonous he can still EAT YOU! Didn't need to tell me twice. We got a few pictures and headed out!

See ya later snake... these butterflies are much less intimidating!

And speaking of intimidating... look what's parked in the entrance of the Museum of History!

We spent alot of time in the Sports Hall of Fame and in the military/war exhibits. These were a big hit!

We saw a play about Blackbeard at the end of the day. It was performed by the Raleigh Little Theatre. Evan wasn't particularly excited about it but he endured for the sake of his brother and sister:)

Once we got done at the museums I had hoped to walk over to the Capital building but it was raining. We headed home to get ready for our dinner guests that night and after that we had a skype date with my sister Lynn and her family. It was such a busy day and so much fun!