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