Canadian Museum of Nature

Today was a relatively busy day. We went to the Canadian Museum of Nature in the morning, ate lunch at the Elgin Street Diner (mmm, poutine), and then after Lucas's nap, we brought him to get the third haircut of his young life. Unfortunately, I only have pictures from the museum, but I'll try and take some of him tomorrow since he looks totally different with shorter hair.

This was the first trip for either of us to the Museum of Nature, not counting a wedding reception we attended back in 2003. I have to say that I was mighty impressed with the place. Some museums I've been to just seem to phone it in and put up half-assed displays. Not so with the Museum of Nature. Everything was first class, and I really enjoyed what I saw of it. If I hadn't been chasing Lucas around 75% of the time, I would have spent quite a but more time admiring the work they have put into it.

I think the highlight was the first floor, since that's the Fossil Gallery, and fossil = dinosaurs! I loved dinosaurs as a kid (still do), and Lucas appears to be following in my footsteps. You can't really see much of it here, but Lucas and Marilu are posing underneath the Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton right at the entrance.


This next one is kind of dark, but I wanted to show off the Triceratops display.


Lucas gets up close with the Triceratops AND T Rex's.



Open up and say ah!


I love this picture of Lucas. He just has this patient, just-checking-things-out look to him, which completely masks the fact that he was a royal pain in the butt most of the trip. The terrible twos have definitely arrived early.


There was an area at the museum where kids could do crafts, and since they are currently hosting a primate exhibit--supposedly Jane Goodall will be in town for it at some point--the craft of the day were little monkey masks that kids could color. Lucas wasn't in the mood to color much so his remained mostly monochromatic, and he wasn't too keen on wearing the mask either. However, we did get lucky and get one halfway decent photo of it before he threw it on the floor.


One area he really enjoyed was a section on the last floor, the bird gallery, that was designed especially for kids. I think it was supposed to show what incubators are like for birds, but it looked a lot like a kitchen playset, and he was all over that.



There was also this kid-sized jeep, and he was happy to get behind the wheel. I'm not sure what the significance of it was, in relation to birds, but it kept the kids happy so I don't really care.


This last photo is from earlier this evening, after we got home from his haircut (and a thrilling trip to Costco). Unfortunately, you can't see the new hairdo since he was busy modeling a bike helmet. Tomorrow, I'm going to try and remember to post a related video of this since he was doing some amusing things with the helmet.