That Just Happened!

This past weekend MPW and I were joined by Becky and Jeremy at the Royal Ontario Museum for some educational fun.  MPW and I love the museum and were excited to share it with Jeremy who had been once as a kid, but didn’t remember much. 

It is unfortunate that Jeremy did not remember the original museum.  Now they have added the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal onto the front of it and it is just horrendous.  I think it is one of those things that you either love or hate, and I can say I hate it!  With all of the new building developments and condo buildings being erected in Toronto, it would have been nice to preserve a bit of our history.  But, oh well, there is plenty of history inside  the building!

This is Becky and Jeremy inside a reconstructed tomb.  Jeremy couldn’t believe there was an actually mummy!  And no matter how many times I see the dinosaurs, I can hardly believe how old the bones are.  Some of the fossils on display are approximately 200 million years old (sorry Creationists)!!  The whole time we were looking at them I kept running ahead to the next one and calling out the date to Jeremy who was further back.  A little annoying?  Perhaps.  Could I help it?  Not at all!!  I love the dinosaur exhibit.  It not only has dinosaur fossils, it is organized chronologically, so you can follow their evolution (again, sorry Creationists) through time and they even have a comparison between animals today and their ancestors. 

Look at all the teeth in the T-Rex!

Jeremy in front of a turtle/tortoise fossil that is suspended from the ceiling.  Can you say awesome?!

We also saw ancient armour, the Warrior Emperor and China’s Terracotta Army (which is a special exhibit on right now that was absolutely amazing, but sorry, no pictures allowed), the bat cave and a whole exhibit on biodiversity.  This last one includes a whole room of stuffed birds and another room of stuffed animals.  It always creeped me out as a kid and, as I learned yesterday, still does.  Can you imagine going into a whole room of dead birds in flight, looking up and seeing this…

Creeeeeeepy!

What wasn’t creepy was the Gems and Minerals exhibit.  Ooooooh shiiiny.  Both Becky and myself would not mind having any of those gems on a ring, but here here are some samples of the minerals and gems we saw.  Pretty.

Finally, after a long trek through the museum we hit up the China exhibit and the Canadian exhibit.  It is weird being in a museum  and seeing a vase that your grandfather had a very similar one of in his basement that was given to him by his grandma.  Weird. Perhaps most impressive was seeing this famous painting:

The Death of Wolfe, Benjamin West (1771).    You can go here  to read a bit more on why Gen. Wolfe was so important in the foundation of Canada.

After that, it was off to a pub for some food and then the subway to take us home.  But not after sneaking back to see more of the wedding set up that was taking place.  That bride had some of the largest pink roses I have ever seen.  Absolutely gorgeous.  What a wonderful day! 

Yeah, That Just Happened!