The cities 1st annual museum scavenger hunt is going on. My boss decided this was a good thing for our students to do as part of getting them out into the community. A good idea yes, but if you are going to be visiting six museums, don’t do it in a single day.

      We all went, meaning all four of us and a friend of the boys. We headed out at 9 a.m. when the first museum opened and went from there.  The first  museum we went to had a ceramics display. There were some really interesting pieces that were breathtaking, and some that were a little odd (double sided dude with the butterfly penis). The security guard was a little agressive in sharing his knowledge of everything, and I warned Kevin about this before we went so that he could prepare himself to be shadowed.  I just smile and walk away, and do it about three times and the guard gets the message.

     The second museum had three different displays. Tattoos, New Mexico History and a photographer’s work. The tattoo display was interesting. It had a saying on one of the plaques “people with tattoos are mysterious” That made me laugh a bit. I know a lot of people with tattoos, and I know a lot of people without tattoos and one is not any more mysterious to me than the other. It was interesting. I found the photographs a little lifeless and dull. Not what the guy was aiming for i’m sure, but to me they could have been better.

     The history in the second display was by far the most interesting out of the three. The boys were running around from one thing to the next just soaking it all in. When we had finished with all three displays they were peeking into other rooms asking “is there any more to see, Mom?” It was fabulous.

     The Railroad Museum was right before lunch. I was really looking forward to this one, and was so disappointed. they had a few rooms with some train memorabilia, and one single little setup with a tiny train going around a track of a mini display. The best thing there was the graffitti on the train cars and an electric engine.

     University Museum was in the process of switching out their displays so there were two that were actually open. There was some gorgeous pottery and artifacts from indian tribes that were (are) native to the region. Jacob made his way around them and came back and said “i like all of them except for those over there.” It turned out that particular tribe made all of it’s little people replicas anatomically correct.

  The absolute best one was the Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum. It cost us $16 to get in and it was worth every penny. The displays were fabulous.  The room where the historic displays were had interactive things to do for the kids. There were the cows, and the milking demonstration. There was a calf there that licked the boys one the forehead. We watched a blacksmith make a nail among other things. It was worth every penny. They had wine tasting in the gift shop. Yes, I did try all of them and liked one so much that I took a bottle home with me. The whole day was just exaustive and facinating.

 When we left there, we had about an hour and a half until the next museum closed so we rushed off to the mall. The displays there change often and this one in particular was what you could do with plants, besides eat them of course. It was fun, bot overly crowded and so we hurried through and got our papers stamped, turned in and went home.