Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

At first we were wondering if we will go see a museum because we were driving through a very residential neighborhood. Then, as promised by google maps, at the end of a normal looking residential street, was this cute museum!

There was a large whale skeleton that greeted us ...

The museum was a single story school looking building with different rooms allocated to different things. It was target to really young kids (aged <10 in our opinion) to introduce them to science concepts. They had a nice microscope which projected the images on a 52 inch TV. The kids just stayed put there and viewed rocks, snail sheels, anything and everything and watched the images. We had fun at that exhibit as well..

Here is Jr. after focussing on some grainy rock

They had one room dedicated to space and space related items.. the thing that caught our eye in this room was this meteor.

There was a large exhibit about archaeology and excavations that focussed on two things. The pygmy mammoth, which I did not know anything about till this trip, especially that they were found in this area 12,000 years ago, and the Indian tribes of the area that were opressed by the settlers. 

The kids were not happy after listening to how the natives were treated and are still feeling the after effects of those days.

The little one seemed to know all about it already because she had read this book about  a girl who had survived alone on the Channel island for 18 years in a book that was part of her school read! The conversation started and ended with "Appa, you don't know anything!". If there is one thing I actually do know by now, it is that I don't know anything. 

There was a beautiful cheat sheet, in case there is a time scale quiz! 

They had a cute Christmas tree with butterflies as ornaments. We loved it!

We spent less than 2 hours here, but the kids had a good time. There were smiles all around, a few new things learned and information tucked away for future use. 

This reminded us of the Kids discovery museum in Sausalito. 

It is indoors and the kids feel nice and warm and have fun doing science work! The exhibits are very nicely done and the explanations are very simple.

The staff was also very friendly and helpful and guided the kids through various activities. 

This place was small but made our day!

Strongly recommended, if you have kids under 10. This is a great place to visit in Santa Barbara.

Albert Hall Museum in Jaipur

The previous post on the Jaipur trip is linked here!

On the last day and a half we managed to see many more places.

We visited Albert hall, which was touted as the local museum. It was a gloomy looking place with not enough lighting, but it did have a lot of interesting pieces in it ranging from 800 AD to the early 1900's, from all over the world. Things that were originally collected by Kings and later curated by "Abert"! 

Going through a museum that is not air conditioned, is dark and dingy on a hot summer day, is not a good idea. The kids refused to move past the first two rooms and sat down on the floor to strike! They said "we will pass on this one appa! please see what you want, and pick us up from this room!"

Here are a few things that I thought were either interesting or unique to this museum.. 

The kids stayed put in that room with the mummy while my FIL and me wandered on..Tons of laquerware, other utensils and decorative vases that occupied a few rooms. If you are into Vases, this might be your place to visit!

Then there were the statues from the late 700's to 1300's. If you are into anything "Tantric"... this might also be the place for you to visit!

This door jamb thingy in the picture below the sign was massive and intricate. Would have loved to see the entire temple though.

I put two and two together after seeing this panel and visiting Abaneri later on. Could not comprehend what the size of the real structures have to be till the next day..

These statues with gold plating were tiny but exquisite. If you have all the money at your disposal, you can patronize such arts!

Talk of beheadings! I could not get the full story from this miniature figurine but the godess seems to be very happy to have slain the buffallo which apparently is symbolic of the bufallo demon king. Good thing the kids stayed in the room with the mummies. I would have had to explain a lot of things without any "konaar notes"!

Finally, there was a display of musical instruments from 1700-1800 and this thing was called a Guitar! Thought that was funny. The guitar surely evolved in the last few hundred years.

The biggest draw though, was the pigeons outside. Thousands of them! We watched a man feed them and a kid chase them around every 2 minutes. Took a slow-motion video of this on the iPhone 5S and had lost the slo-mo effect. Thanks to some edits on iMovie have gotten it to look close to the original.. 

 We went on to see the Abaneri wells. That has to be a post in itself! 

Turtle Bay in Redding

As part of our recent trip, almost a whole day was spent at the Turtle Bay Exploration park in Redding.

We have driven past Redding many times without ever stopping to find out what this was all about! Thanks to Mitr, AnuP, and the rest of their gang, who visited this place the previous day, we got to spend a nice day with activities for the kids.

On our way to Mt. Shasta, Jr. empatically declared that "the trip was boring!". On further questioning she said "I only like trips with small driving and where there are structures!". What structures? was our question. The prompt answer as "Structures where kids can play!".

Well, this place had "structures" per her definition. It was nicely laid out. A little bird house where kids got to feed parakeets, a butterly garden, a beautiful kids play area with picnic tables where we had our lunch.

When you have four uncles in the party (namely periappa, chitappa, mama and uncle!) you get a chance to actually free up your hands from kids! It is always nice to have the extra "uncle" hands! Balaji, my brother, BIL and BIL's housemate are all a big hit with the kids!

Many a type of "butterchi's"!

And let us not forget the "bumble bee"!

You cross this and go to a museum, gift store and cafe. The museum had a display of the local fish and some history of Indian tribes that occupied the area. We never figured out why the place was called Turtle bay, but this museum did have a few turtles swimming in the display cases and a wall of little metal turtles with peoples names on it! The little one displayed her counting skills "one, two, four hundred, two fifty...."

Then you get to cross the Sundial bridge. It was neat and clean and had amazing views of the sacramento river This place is apparently more beautiful in the night when the bridge has lights on it, but we could not wait that late. The little one was so thrilled to run around the glass surface on the bridge and pet all the doggies that were on the bridge.

On the other side of the bridge is a international garden of sorts with little sections of plants from every major continent. There were also some interesting ponds, water fountains and bonzai displays.

The right caption for this picture would be "Cute - On Demand!"

It was long walk and on the other end of the garden was a kids play area with a beautiful water fountain and a "structure" made from willow branches which made Jr.'s day.

Pavan uncle watching the kids while they pose. They definitely did a better job of posing from the fountain top compared to the mountain top!

If your kid demands "structures" and you have no clue what "structures" are, they are there in the Turtle Bay Exploration area. Even if you dont spot them, your kids will!

Strongly recommended as a break for kids in between trails, hikes, snow, forests, lakes and mountains.

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