Day 3 - Virginia Living Museum and Nauticus Museum

So as I mentioned in my last post, one of our goals for any state exploration vacation is to have a fun and educational time for as cheap as possible.  One of the ways that we do that is by buying an annual pass to our local science museum, children museum and/or zoo.  The local museums by us have a reciprocal program.  That means the annual pass that gives you admission for the year to your local museum ALSO gives you admission for the year at hundreds of museums in most, if not all, of the 50 states!  (Some places give you 50% off instead of free entry for your entire family - you can look on your local museum's reciprocal list to find out the specifics.)  In 2011, we had a membership to our local science museum, so I looked up what other museums we could visit.  There were many to choose from, but based on location and looking up the museums on the internet, we settled on visiting both the Virgina's Living Museum and the Nauticus Museum.

We left early enough in the morning to make sure that we would be at the Virgina's Living Museum for the opening of the museum.  We wanted to make sure we had ample time to visit both museums on the same day.  The drive from Chippokes Plantation to the Virginia's Living Museum took about an hour.  

Virginia Living Museum

While Ken took care of getting our passes, the kids immediately discovered yet another one of those cut-outs that kids love so much!

Nathaniel and Ainsley "hanging out"

The museum has 2 parts.  The first part is inside, and it is divided into sections that tell the ecology of the different sections of Virginia.  The second part is outside and it is a zoo of local wildlife.

We decided to start off  where we were, in the inside, because there was a huge school group in the zoo area.  A benefit to homeschooling is the lack of crowds when you visit a place on a school day morning, but every once and a while, you run into a large school group - especially towards the end of the school year!

Piedmont and Mountain Gallery

We all LOVED this museum!  There were many exhibits, tons of hands on stuff, and so many things having to do with animals, which is a favorite of any kid!!   The Piedmont and Mountain Gallery had tons of wildlife!  There was an aquarium filled with fish you would find in the rivers and lakes in the area.  There were also many animal exhibits.  The kids favorite was the red squirrel exhibit.  We had seen one earlier at Chippokes and didn't know what it was.  I thought it was a baby squirrel.  Nope - they are just adorably small!!!

Lots of fun in the Discovery Center!

Hands On Fun

The amphibian section in the Discovery Zone was a huge hit

There were Discovery Centers throughout the museum that were a lot of fun.  One section was a touch tank, and we spent a lot of time there.  The staff was great about letting the kids handle the animals and answering questions and asking them questions about the animal they were handling. Another Discovery Center that they loved was the amphibian section.  They had a large touch screen that showed the frogs that were native to each area in Virginia and you could listen to the sound each one made.  The kids were able to identify the different frogs that they had been hearing on their vacation, and they loved that.  There was another section that had lots of fossils and bones to handle and many microscopes to look at the tons of slides they provided.  This was my oldest son's favorite Discovery Center.

Chesapeake Bay Section

There was also an aquarium for the animals found in and around the Chesapeake Bay.    The fish here were HUGE!  And the facts about how abundant the Bay used to be were amazing to read, and sad to think about how much we've destroyed over the years.  Clearly, we were not as good stewards to the earth as we could have been.

Appalachian Cove and Cypress Swamp - how sad that we destroyed so much

Ephraim checking out the fish in the Cypress Swamp

Turtles in the Cypress Swamp

Nathaniel trying to get close to a bird in the Appalachian Cove

  The Appalachian Cove had wild birds flying around, which delighted my bird loving boys!  The Cypress Swamp had fish, turtles and alligators!

There were two other sections.  One about creatures of the dark - things like flying squirrels, jellyfish and bats.  And another one about the geology of Virginia - things like the types of rocks and gems you can find in Virginia, fossils in Virginia, and different types of caves.

And this was only HALF of the museum!  We still haven't been to the outside section!

Watching the otters swim

The outside section is basically a zoo of Virginia wildlife!  If they live in Virginia, then they have it in this zoo!  There were everyday animals like birds and raccoons and the not so everyday animals like the lynx and red wolf!

Great Blue Heron

Who knew raccoons enjoy a nice swim?  I had no clue!

The Red Wolf - Extinct in the wild

Lynx

Not quite as big as a NYC subway rat, but fairly close.

 The only exhibit that we did not do in the Virginia Living Museum was the planetarium.  At the time, they were offering the same program that our local planetarium was showing, and since we had seen it so many times, we decided to skip it here.  After spending a very enjoyable morning at the Virginia Living Museum, we ate our lunch in the car and drove the 30 minutes over to Norfolk to the Nauticus Museum.  Admission includes the Nauticus Museum, The Hampton Roads Naval Museum, and a self-guided tour of the USS Wisconsin. Even though they are 3 separate museums, they are all connected together, so no driving from place to place.

Nauticus

Hampton Roads Naval Museum

Nauticus Museum

This museum was much more of a naval history museum, even though it was included as a reciprocal museum for our local science museum.  Ken's grandfather was in the US Navy during WWII, and so we all found this museum interesting.  The kids found it helpful to get a hands on feel for some of the things their grandpa had talked about in his navy stories.

Nathaniel had no idea an anchor was so large

Pretending to be Grandpa sleeping in a Navy ship

One of the things included in this museum was a tour of the USS Wisconsin.  This was a first for all of us.  I have never been on anything larger than a fishing boat - certainly not one nearly as large as a Navy ship!!!

USS Wisconsin

We were allowed to wander all over the ship, and there were many vets there to explain what things were or to share stories.  The kids loved it!

The kids couldn't get over how large the chain links were!

See those tiny specks under the guns?  Those would be my children!

The only part of the ship I didn't enjoy - The Stairs! How does no one die on these??

The mess hall

 After spending much more time on the ship than we had thought we would, we wandered through the rest of the museum inside.  There was a lot of hands on stuff to do that kept the kids entertained.  There were periscopes and telescopes to peer through, ropes to knot, boats to steer, telegraphs to send messages on, boats to play in, sea creatures to touch, sharks and fish to look at, and spy cams to find people to spy on!  And with all of that - we DIDN'T see all of the museum because we had run out of time!  You could easily spend a full day here.  We couldn't spend forever in Virginia, so we had to squeeze what we could into our week and a half, so for us, spending half a day at each museum worked well.

Looking through the periscope

Learning to tie knots

Sending messages over the telegraph

Watching the Moray Eel watch them!

Send your brother to the telescopes and then spy on him!

It was only an hour to Chippokes from Norfolk and we had a slow cooker dinner waiting for us in the cabin when we returned. We had a GREAT time at both museums, and the only out of pocket cost for the day was the gas to get there!

Such a great way to add inexpensive fun to your family vacation is to look into your local museums and see if they have a reciprocal program!

Here are the links for the museums for those interested in visiting:
The Virginia Living Museum
Nauticus Museum in Norfolk

Up next: Pirates Cove Miniature Golf and exploring Chippokes Plantation

Day 2 - Colonial Williamsburg

We woke up to a beautiful spring morning!  Once we had figured out sleeping arrangements in the house, we slept quite nicely.  The house floors are paper thin, so I woke up to the sound of children playing downstairs.  It's a very nice sound to wake up to!  When we had eaten our breakfast, I took to fixing our picnic lunch and snacks while Ken took the kids outside to play.

Ken and Nathaniel playing catch

It wasn't long till we were off on our adventure of the day: Colonial Williamsburg!  I am SO glad that we had Worthless Sam (our pet name for our GPS) with us.  If we had just printed out directions or asked someone, I am certain we never would have found our way.  Remember the song "Over the river, and through the woods..."  Those are basically the directions.  You travel through the itty bitty little town until you hit the forest.  Then you travel to the forest until you think, "This has GOT to be the wrong way..." and then, viola!  There is the river.  The James River to be precise.  It's only about a 15 minute ride to the ferry, but the first time, it felt like forever, mostly because it felt like we were lost.

Waiting to board the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry

In all the times we took the ferry, we never needed to wait more than one boat to board.  Sometimes we could board on the first boat if we were lucky.  It was never more than a 10 to 15 minute wait for the ferry.  There are tons of birds' nests on the pilings and flying nearby, so the wait passes by quickly when you are watching the birds and trying to identify them.  There is a ton of room on the ferry.  You are able to get out and walk around once your car is on the ferry.  The ferry was a highlight of the day.  The ferry ride didn't take long either, only 15 to 20 minutes, and it was a beautiful ride.

I found it funny that is shows the car in the water.  :)

We stayed in the car for the ride over because Felix had fallen asleep, but the kids climbed up to the front to get a better view of all the fun!

Ken and Nathaniel enjoying the ferry ride

Ainsley enjoying the breeze

About 20 minutes after the ferry ride, we were in Colonial Williamsburg.  The trip took about an hour from start to finish, but it doesn't feel that long because of the ferry ride.

The goal of our state exploring family vacation is to do it as cheaply as possible, and so we opted not to buy tickets for Colonial Williamsburg.  We were looking at spending around $80 for our family of 6 to get in.  And that is with 3 of us being free!!!  While we wanted to see Williamsburg, once we realized that we could get into the Colonial Williamsburg area for free, and there would be plenty of stuff for us to do without tickets, we decided that spending the money in another area would be a wiser use of our money.  I wouldn't have even known that going without a ticket was an option if it hadn't been for this website:  http://www.virginia-beach-family-fun.com/colonial-williamsburg-va.html
This website proved to be an invaluable resource for planning our vacation so cheaply.  Check it out!

We were able to do plenty of things in Williamsburg without the tickets.  No, we couldn't go into the houses, but for the most part, you could explore the yards, and we talked a LOT to the interpreters.  The kids asked them tons of questions, which they were more than happy to help with, even without a ticket! 

Instead of spending all our money for the day on just the tickets, we opted to instead to spend it on dinner, costumes and an evening play.  We did spend more than if we had just bought tickets, but we had  much more fun putting our money into those activities than just the tour tickets.

The costumes were $25 for the day, and we let the kids dress up if they wanted to.  Ainsley and Ephraim decided that was going to be fun, so they picked out costumes.

My colonial kids 

The hats do not come with costumes for obvious head lice reasons!  But we decided it wouldn't be a complete costume without the hats, so we splurged and bought them the hats.  They are big into dress-up anyway, so we were sure they wouldn't be used once and then forgotten.  Those additions made the costumes adorably cute and the kids in their costumes turned heads everywhere they went!

Checking out the bullfrogs and ducks

The only rule of the costumes was that the costumes stayed on the entire day, and no complaining and saying things like, "I'm too hot" or "This is uncomfortable".  We had one "I'm hot" during the day, but that was it.  She opted to push up her sleeves and have some water and she was done with complaining.  Not to mention that it didn't matter how hot she was, she was not about to part with that costume!  Here is the info on the costume rental if you are interested:  http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/do/shop/costume-rentals/

Once we left the visitor center, you head across the Footbridge to the Past.  This was interesting.  Every few steps it has a sign in the walkway saying what year it is and what the mindset of the people is at that time.

1865 - From this date you know people who own other people

You are entering the American Colonies

The kids enjoyed stopping and talking to the interpreters along the way.  Many of them were great, and spent a lot of time talking to us, and answering all our questions. 

 

We made our way to the village square for some photo ops and an early picnic lunch.

Very naughty children go in the stockades!

Colonial Ephraim with his souvenir pistol

She discovered it's a "spinner"

It's not a real picnic without a game of tag!

Before we knew it, the day was done and it was getting close to dinner time!  Costumes were due back at gift shop at 5:30, but we wanted to go to the Peiking Restaurant (a chinese buffet only 5 minutes away) while it was still considered lunch prices, so we decided to keep the costumes until after dinner.  We also had an early evening play to attend, so we wanted enough time between dinner and the play.  Lunch was just $7 per person and I believe it was 3 and under were free!  It was a great deal and DELICIOUS!  Here is the address in case you have a hankering for some good (and cheap!) Chinese:  120 Waller Mill Rd # J, Williamsburg, VA

In front of the Peiking Restaurant

After dinner, we wandered around Williamsburg a little bit more before Ken ran back to return the costumes.  While we were waiting for Ken to come back, we took some time to explore the gardens.  They were beautiful and we were the only ones there. 

In the Gardens

 We went to see a play in the evening in Kimball Theatre.  We saw a family friendly play.  I can't remember the exact title, but it was like a traveling comedy show of old.  It was very funny and we all enjoyed it immensely! 

Nathaniel, Ainsley and the man who was attacked by a porcupine

This man looked uncannily like our Uncle Tim.

We parked in the visitor center and walked from there to Kimball theatre.  Next time, I would make sure our car is close to Kimball theatre when it is time to go to the theatre.  There were many dark, unlit areas to walk through in order to go back to our car.  While it was fine, and we came back without incidence, it was still nerve wracking.

All in all we had a WONDERFUL day in Colonial Williamsburg and were glad we went here!  Even if at the end of the day we were exhausted!

Sleepy Boy

Up next: Virginia's Living Museum and Nauticus Museum