The well is running dry and we were in the need for a day’s adventure out and about. Christopher was super pumped about dinosaur books at the library and that triggered my memory that there is a local earth museum that is paleontological based. I showed Beth a bunch of the photos and she agreed that would be a hit. The best part was that it was only 20 minutes away. We asked Christopher if he’d like to go and he was super excited.
It was a Monday and I’m pretty sure we were the only folks there for the day. We got there in the morning, shortly after open, and found a spot up close. There were a couple of statues out front so we had to get as much touching of those in as we could because mommy and daddy said that we weren’t allowed to touch anything inside that didn’t have a signing saying so.
Once we were in we breezed on through ticketing and were off to the races. First up, Triceratops.
Like our Ocean Park visit, stopping to read signs was rare, so we got them in when we could. The game of ping pong from exhibit to exhibit was on! As soon as this photo was taken we were on to the next “rocks”.
At one point we ran into a fossil finding exhibit. The young girl there was very patient and nice. She did a really good job helping us find something in every single rock we picked up. It wasn’t really all that compelling until a giant magnifying glass was brought up from underneath the counter. Though it was a little odd, Christopher thought, that toothbrushes were needed for locating fossils in rocks.
Ah, that’s better! 
Good new, lots of touching was had here.
As seen above, gloves were the thing to wear on dino day. We had an episode on Sunday were one of those prized red gloves had fallen, and we were sure it was a goner, much to the dismay of Christopher. So, they never left his hands for the day. It really worked out, and I’m sure the folks in charge of cleaning any sort of glass in the place was very happy with his decision to keep them on.
Rocks and bones weren’t all that fun, as we soon discovered. As it turns out, all the dinosaurs were dead, and that’s a super big bummer. Thankfully, the Smithsonian gave this museum a pretty sweet exhibit.
Courtesy if the Smithsonian. 
This Steggy is in great shape for being 112 years old!
On a regular basis we hear “Can I have a stegosaurus, Mom? Can I? please!?” So we were pretty excited for a quick five minutes, at the life sized stegosaurus on display.
After the stegosaurus was some more rocks and bones, but then, something alive! There were two saltwater fish tanks with coral and fun fish to look at. That was probably the biggest hit of the visit. Never mind the complete Hyde Park Mastodon directly behind the fish tanks, which to me was the coolest thing to see. The back story on that is pretty cool too. I guess you never know what you’ll dig up in your back yard pond… on accident.
All in all, it was a really fun day and Christopher really did enjoy himself. We did some running around, but we made sure to have lunch out. Five Guys was a real hit. The hot dog was five star and it turns out vinegar on french fries is gross unless you also add ketchup as well.
If you happen to be in the Ithaca area and are looking for a fun museum to visit, I recommend the Museum of the Earth. Beth thought it was a little on the small side, but it was just right for our current attention span. We spent about an hour and a half there, and that was perfect. They’re always adding in new exhibits, so go check it out!
