Museum Trip

We spent the last couple of days in Atlanta, at the High Museum and the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. It was a really wonderful family trip, truly!

We stayed in a quite unimpressive Super 8 motel within walking distance of the High, and I think perhaps the funnest thing we did the whole long weekend was order in Chinese food on Sunday night. We NEVER order in, and after a long day at the High Museum, we were all completely tickled to get to kick back and relax in our hotel room rather than go out yet again. We played a GO FISH art game and watched TV and stuffed ourselves! Michael did go get a soda and water for us from the neighboring Kroger, and we were tickled that he came back with a Britta filtration pitcher rather than a jug of water! It'll be our new travel accessory!

I spent quite a bit of time ogling my new Queen Marie Antoinette necklace and bracelet. I don't know when I'll ever wear it, but boy do I have the bling! It's beautiful and utterly ostentatious, not generally my style, but I was totally drawn to it and then sold by the 60% off pricing! Honestly, though, it'll be lovely for an opera or other formal event (but now I need a dress!).

Oh, right, I suppose I should mention the exhibits! Frankly, this exhibit could be entitled 'we wish for a da Vinci exhibit'. There was fabulous art there by da Vinci's mentor and students. There were several incredible sculptures recently 'suggested' as attributable to Leonardo da Vinci, which the museum pounced on with fervor, including making posters and book jacket covers of this exhibit from them. Yes, there was some verifiable Leonardo da Vinci art...we got to see many notes and sketches from his scrapbooks! Okay, and we did get one painting...an unfinished painting of St. Jerome and a lion.

I only realized that this exhibit would not have any of his most famous paintings just before we took the trip. I've been spoiled with many exhibits featuring many priceless and famous paintings in the past, so I assumed that this would be similar, but I suppose the institutions that own Leonardo's paintings keep an iron grip on them. I mean, how disappointed would Parisian tourists be if they went to the Louvre and missed the Mona Lisa or Madonna of the Rocks? After prepping for the visit with the kids by reading so many kids' books about Leonardo and watching a film about him, I think the kids were also a little bummed not to see any of the famous paintings we'd been discussing. The quite fun kids' audio guide through the exhibits makes all the difference, though, and I'm so glad the High Museum that kids' audio feature for their special exhibits.

The kids do seem to enjoy the museum visits, especially since their sometimes-skinflint mama suddenly has a hole in her pocket! I LOVE buying stuff at the museum stores, and they inevitably get at least one new item there. Fiona left with a big stuffed horse and Alex chose a DVD about the First Emperor of China (the last exhibit we went to see). The cafe gets its share of the money, too, though I have to admit I'm less than impressed with Atlanta's museum cafes.

Monday's museum visit was to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, which I was surprised to find was extremely kid-oriented. Michael laughed at my surprise and said, "Who do you think wants to go and see dinosaurs?" Yes, actually, this was true for us as well, as Alex's former teacher recommended the museum because of his paleontology passion. The kids had quite a fun time in the optical illusion room, and we joined an African Safari through the IMAX 'experience'. I didn't spend quite as much in that gift shop, but the kids 'panned' for crystals and I bought a light prism and a gyroscope 'for them', theoretically! When they didn't open the crystal right away, I took it and started playing with it myself!

We bought the Family membership, which I'm always a sucker for, even though we live so far away from Atlanta. The memberships are often no more than the cost of two individual family visits, and I always feel special in getting the 'member' discount at the stores and cafes! I was happily surprised, though, to find out that there is reciprocal membership (translate as 'free admission') at a large number of science centers, including one in Hilton Head, so I suspect that we'll be busy this next summer with quite a few science center visits!