Childrens Museum and Aquarium

When we were in Vegas, my sister had her baby, so my mom went down to Phoenix to help her out. That left me with the kids staying with my father, who still works. We had several free days, so we filled them up with visiting friends, going to the childrens museum and the shark aquarium at the Mandalay Bay hotel.

The children's museum was fun. They had a special exhibit called Grossology. I remember when it came through Houston, I had wanted to see it, but my kids were too young so I never went. I have to admit I personally was a little disappointed in the exhibit, because it was so small. The kids seemed to enjoy it though. This faucet was animated and talked to the kids. It also had a big snot drop that came out of its nose.
They got to do a silly art project.

They also got to do several physics experiments. When I was in high school (at least 15 years ago), I had spent maybe 40 hours volunteering at the children's museum. I was surprised to see that many of the exhibits were the same. There were several new ones, but there were quite a few that hadn't changed. Here's Adam and Michael learning about pulleys.

By the end of the museum experience, I was exhausted. Nate wanted to walk off by himself all of the time and I had to try to chase him and keep track of the other three. If I had gone with friends or been more comfortable with the neighborhood, I may have allowed some of that, but the museum is situated in a part of town that is consistently plagued with transients.


Another day, we went to the aquarium that is at the Mandalay Bay. It was a lot of fun. There were a few aquariums, and it ended with a huge aquarium with several views into it including parts that you could walk over and a tunnel you could walk under. This last aquarium had many sharks and turtles, it was cool. The whole exhibit was not huge, but we were in Vegas, and the last time there was a native fish there, there were also dinosaurs walking around....

Uncle Clell with the kids.