The Museum of Natural History Take 3: Discovery Room & Dinosaurs

Hot! Hot! Hot!
With another hot day ahead, we had our minds set on something indoors. Why not go back to the Museum of Natural History? We had a membership after all, so costs were a minimum.

Discovery Room
we hadn't been to the Discovery Room yet, so we decided to give it a go. As usual, Charlotte was a bit of a handful, but Beatrix did well, and both girls seemed to enjoy exploring.

Photo of girls in Discovery Room To come.

We had lunch in the cafeteria in the lower level before going to see the dinosaurs again on the fourth floor.

Dinosaurs
We really took our time looking at the Dinosaurs. We had a good time spotting the babies and eggs.

Photos of girls in Dinosaur Wing to come.

Dinostore
We paid a visit to the Dinostore, where my wallet paid for two dinosaur head grabbers and two pink digging hats with lights.

Photos of girls with their Dinostore merchandise to come.

The World's Largest Dinosaur Exhibit
We've gone to the frog exhibit at each of our two prior visits to the museum. While checking in at the membership desk, Beatrix insisted she wanted to see the frog exhibit again, and perhaps I should have listened. While this exhibit has gotten great reviews, and I'm sure perfect for an older child and adults, it just wasn't what I was expecting. I guess I should have read up about it prior to getting tickets for it. First off, we had timed tickets for 1:30, and we were at the exhibit door 20 minutes prior to our time slot. I decided we may as well walk around and look at the dinosaurs, maybe see something we hadn't seen yet. That's when I got these photos of the girls.

Photo of girls waiting for exhibit to come.

1:30 came fast so we went back to the exhibit. The line was super long, wrapping around the gift shop and doubling back to the entrance. People were rushing, and very territorial. If you even looked at the line, you got told to go to the end of the line. We took our time. We weren't in a hurry, and when we finally stepped foot in the exhibit, I was very underwhelmed. I suppose I expected to see more big dinosaur bones, but we only saw one large bone of a dinosaur leg. This exhibit, I find out later, wasn't about the excavation of large dinosaurs, or the bones of large dinosaurs, but rather how they lived, what they needed to survive, and how their bodies worked. It was very crowded, and loud, and hard to disseminate that information back to my 4 year old. Perhaps the best part for my girls was the time limited (5 minutes) dig pit, though most people weren't adhering to the limit, despite the long line of waiting children. I had to drag my 2 year old away screaming. Funny enough, this part of the exhibit was the only thing the reviewer I read knocked, as it was more about excavation, and had nothing to do with the rest of the exhibit. My girls enjoyed it though. I just don't think it was worth $16 for me and $12 for Bea.

Photo of girls with dig pit to come.

It was time for us to head back to the apartment at this point, and though we are only 8 blocks away, I was feeling the effects of the humidity. I made a stop into a Duane Reade to get the girls batteries for the lights on their digger hats, which requires a screwdriver, so the lights still aren't working.