Going to the City

It has been a long stretch since we headed south for a visit with my family. It wasn't a long visit, yet there was a long list of tasks we needed to accomplish in the short time. We did make time for some fun. My parents took our family, my sister and her family for a day at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Upon arrival we gathered, negotiating and discussing what we each wanted to see. We must have looked quite humourous, like a small unorganized tour group! Once we had a loose plan we were off. My asking everyone to stop for a quick photo got old for most very quickly (as you can see in the first photo!). On our must see listwere the animals in bio diversity section. My first assumption was that the animals were replicas, so I was trying to figure out if the rhino was clay and if so what kind of a cast and talent would be required to produce such a huge reproduction. It was quickly pointed out to me by the kids that all the animals were real, preserved animals. The diverse collection of animals was truly impressive. The kids spent a long time wandering from display to display soaking in the small details; did this animal have fingernails? could you see eyelashes? answers so much more intriguing to find out this way than in a book.


The prehistoric displays had just as great a 'wow' factor for me. At one spot there was a skeleton of a four legged animal. Not surprisingly huge. The kids pointed out to me (again, yup those kids are good) that this skeleton was of a land sloth, the modern day sloth was in a display case directly in front of it. Seeing the two sloths together, the contrast in size so stark really was amazing. Again, a book would have been informative but the effect would not have been as powerful.

The day was spent moving around the displays, sharing each part with different people. It was great to watch the kids run from cousin to grampy to brother to aunt to dad and so on sharing with each one the 'thing' that caused their excitement. The subway was of course a hit. Shai was taken with the idea of being underground, you could see the little wheels turning as he was saying it's dark but it's not night....we are underground? The older kids freestyle surfed, trying to impressive each other with their moves.