HOUSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE
I met some wonderful people here. One couple is Grace and Lee. Their grandson, Camden, came to visit from NY state. They were going to visit some of the sights and I asked if I could go along. We all got Houston City Pass, which gave us 6 venues for $39, which was a deal.
Our first stop was the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Did you see the movie, "Night at the Museum"? This place really reminded me of it. There were huge Dinosaurs, stuffed tigers, little men talking to you, and a mummy. The museum also has a big butterfly room, and the Fabrege' collections was there too.
As you might expect, the museum has a big section of the museum devoted to geology and the oil industry. One display simulated going down an oil well and how they drill for oil. That was fun and noisy.
There was also an amazing mineral and gem collections with some wonderful examples of emerald, beryls, rhodochrosite and calcites.
Another great display was the Mayan and people of the Americas area. There was a beautiful totem pole and a painted story bison skins. A wonderful collection.
Because NASA is a big part of Houston, the museum has a simulated space shuttle command center, but there were several school groups who were in there, so we just looked.
The web site is www.hmns.org
HOUSTON CHILDREN'S MUSEUM
Not far from the Natural Science Museum is the Childrens Museum. Camden wanted to go, but the adults had just as much fun. The primary attraction is a kid's Main Street in Kidtropolis. It had a working bank, city hall, grocery store, diner, vet, EMT, and TV station. The kids got to do adult jobs. It was fun, especially watching the kids get into their jobs. They were cashiers, cooks, bankers, and TV staff. They could do a TV broadcast.
There were also jungle gyms, those dance step machines, which I tried. I got a score of 1200, Camden got 6000.
They had a great energy section, where kids could experiment with forces. And then there was the phone man. A 20 ft Telephone man made of recycled phones. He was cool! The dragon and faerie room was filled with a Vietnam village explaining their culture and religion.
We did art, business, science and exercise at this museum...we all slept well that night.
The web site is www.cmhouston.org
Houston is the 4th or 5th largest city in the US. They have freeways all over, but the traffic is crazy. Getting around takes some time. They do have a Metro system, but it needs to be extended to the burbs, The city is very widespread.
All the museums are in one area and nearby is a beautiful park too.
This city also has a major medical area with many teaching and research hospitals, mostly aimed at cancer. Rice University is situated right between the medical and museum centers.
I like it here thought, much to do and see. Tomorrow I will blog about NASA.
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