A Trip Back in Time

Today I was a chaperone to Miss Gremlin’s 3rd grade trip to the Museum of Natural History. I’m not a big Art Gallery or Museum goer, I know, I live in a city with some of the worlds best museums and galleries ……. I’ve been to many but I’ll admit, only to you, that it’s not really my thing. WHAT! I know, I’m showing my country bumpkinness…. now and again, I don’t mind going, but spending HOURS there is just too much.

I love how most of the Museums are admission by donation…. Yes, the suggested price is what they try to rip you off for, but you can pay just $1.00 to go to the Met, The Natural History and many other New York museums and galleries. Of course they don’t really advertise that, hoping that unsuspecting tourists will pay top dollar to go inside. Naturally, if you’ve paid $25 bucks then you’ll want to get your monies worth and stay for hours and hours…..

Today, armed with 16 kids and 4 adults, we braved the subway (another freak out for me, lots of kids on the subway) and headed to the Museum. We were on a mission to see the dioramas and the bio diversity room. The kids had a scavenger hunt sheet to answer questions and we adults just had to keep the kids together.

This is part of the museum I do love, the details are fantastic and if you’re in the right frame of mind you can be swept away and feel like you’re standing right in front of the animals.

Today, for me, was one of those days. It was a sort of time travel. I imagined I was living in that time, caveman, native American Indian, eskimo, whatever the case may be. It was a fun trip…….

Hiding behind a snow covered rock, trying desperately to slow my heavy breathing, the beating of my heart booming in my ears.

I turn to see the lynx isn’t after me but the Musken Ox…..crouched in my position I see the ferocious beauty of the circle of life… the blood on the snow fascinates my senses.

The animals out on the plains do their thing, the males fight for dominance.

After a successful wade into the river, he’s having fish tonight!

This guy’s getting sex…. he just needs to decide which lady is first.

A midnight hunting trip….. this time the deer managed to get away.

I picture these guys fighting, butting their heads together.

Imagining myself as Pocahontas, I watch these little coyotes dig a den and play by the water.

This guy is just majestic and the school mascot, all the chanting kids brought me back to reality…I was back in the darkened museum looking at taxidermied animals……but the trip I had been on in my mind was pretty cool.

If you haven’t been, you must go, it’s so well done, you could easily spend an hour in this one room alone.

Once we did the Night at the Museum tour, zigzagging through the building with a checklist, finding Dumdum, Dexter and Rex…

The kids were good, no one got lost on the subway and we made it back to school. I was a lot less frazzed than after other trips, I like these 3rd grade kids. I think I’ll do it again.

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