canadian museum of nature

We spent 6 hours at the Canadian Museum of Nature today! 6 HOURS!

We've been to this museum a couple of times before and I took a few pictures way back then too, of course! That kinda goes without saying! Anyway, a couple of the pictures I took on those previous visits are now on the new Canadian Museum of Nature website - here and here. My sweet girl! (They asked my permission to use them, which is why we got into the museum free of charge today!)

In fact, today was the first day we actually got to see the whole new and improved museum. Here is a bit of the background on the renovation, taken from Wikipedia...

"A major renovation of all parts of the building began in 2004 and was completed in 2010, including a lighter-weight glass "lantern" taking the place of the tower removed in 1915. For most of the duration of the renovation, parts of the building were still open to the public, but the entire building was closed temporarily on 26 April 2010 for final changes. The newly renovated museum re-opened again on 22 May 2010, and the lantern structure was christened the "Queens' Lantern" in honour of both Elizabeth II, who visited the building on her 2010 royal tour and Queen Victoria."

The museum is beyond beautiful, it's a 100 year old stone castle and the inside is magnificent.

There are interactive games, screens and movies all over the place, along with role playing stations, a veterinary clinic, a submarine, a ship, a puppet show, costumes, a recording booth, the discovery center... I could go on and on! Lilah and I watched a movie today about the extinction of dinosaurs and during the movie there was a light spray of water and wind effects to go along with the film. It was pretty cool!

I also just found this piece of info on Wikipedia... "the Bull Moose mosaic at the front entrance was hidden under carpeting from 1950 to 2010." Isn't that crazy? You can see the fabulous mosaic in my pictures below.

If you ever come to Ottawa, with or without children, come see this museum - you will absolutely not be disappointed! I guarantee it.

And quite honestly, 6 hours wasn't even long enough for us today! I had the hardest time dragging Lilah away from our last stop of the day - the special event penguin area! The children (and even adults) could dress in penguin costumes and slide down an artificial iceberg slide on their tummies, like penguins! Very fun! Lilah enjoyed it so much that she walked around for the rest of the evening like a penguin, taking short quick steps with her arms straight out behind her! It was so cute!

[ the flickr set is here ]