Thursday, August 30, 2012

Guest Blogger: Evan- The Adventure Continues!!






Here I am in Kalamazoo, after an awesome ride on an Amtrak train! My Nonna (Grandma) Marcy and I have been thinking about, and planning this trip for a long time! One of the sites we decided to go to was the "Kalamazoo Valley Museum".

Nonna Marcy is all about seeing and learning new things- and that's fine with me! So, we walked about three blocks from the train station to the museum.










This is Megan, who was very friendly and helpful! There also was a lady named Karen, who helped us decide where to go for lunch. Both are SO friendly and helpful!

The first floor of the museum had a tornado machine, like the one in the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum.


This machine shows how wind creates waves! We could control the wind, and see how more wind made bigger waves! Cool! High winds can create waves more than 20 feet tall, and travel for thousand of miles!

I could turn this machine and make a funnel storm (creating sand dunes by rotating the sphere

At this one-- A Tectonic Basin- shows a miniature earthquake that creates shifting patterns in the sand!


The second floor was SO AWESOME!! There was this handle you could rotate and make all sorts of things work! I was being the power source! I could make a radio turn on, or a light to glow- all sorts of things!





Nonna Marcy liked this sign- it basically tells it all for this floor!


I tried to put this poor guy back together! I couldn't find where all the parts were suppose to be! (I think we lost the patient!) It was sort of fascinating and yucky- all at the same time!)

So I went back to generating electricity!


I got to pretend I was working in a little cafe!
I tried to put 5 hot dogs in one bun! Ha! Nonna Marcy said I was being a typical 9 year old boy!


I got to be on T.V.! as a News Announcer!

..and be on stage playing a banjo!

...and, yep- back to being a generator! I loved that thing!
There was a cool section that had statues of all the famous people that came from ..or were a part of Kalamazoo history!

This lady was pointing to the way out of the exhibit.

Magnets! Too cool!

Nonna Marcy loved the general store, and so did I!


I got to look through this thing and see some really old pictures of Kalamazoo- from long ago!
This section was cool, showing what part of a dollar use to be spend on cost of living!

This showed $1.50 to spend on work cloths!

...and in this area, you could build something, by assembly line!



I listened to an old time radio program!

...And had to do the generator thing, one more time! Ha! Nonna Marcy let out a deep sigh, and said it was time for lunch!
Karen, one of the nice ladies at the front desk, suggested Andrea's Cafe. It wasn't too far of a walk. By now I was starved, and I think Nonna Marcy was exhausted! The waitress there, named Lisa, was the only waitress there! Boy was she busy! But she took good care of us! (She's camera shy, so we didn't take her picture) While we waited for our food I had fun playing with the paper from the straws. After a little bit, Nonna Marcy took the paper away. Hmmm. I told her "You can take the paper away, but you can't take away my imagination!" She laughed and said I was right! But she kept the paper. The food came- cheese burgers and fries! Yummy! It was the best! Nonna Marcy seemed to perk up a bit after that!
There's a river that runs through Kalamazoo and right next to the museum. We sat there for a bit, watching the ducks float by.

Back inside and on to the third and final floor! Nonna Marcy loved this "Bishop's chair"!

This section showed an actual mummy, how scientist's can recreate the face to show what they looked like. It was dark in there, so none of the pictures came out.

There was suppose to be a "Pirate" section- but the only thing of much interest was old time guns you could shoot at ships crossing the screen. It was cool- but Nonna Marcy was hoping for more about their ships and life.

I was fascinated by this little underwater explorer, like the one they used to find the Titanic!

And last, I panned for gold! (It was actually bits of iron ore) I was allowed to bring home a piece!)

Whew! That was a lot to do in one day! First the early morning train ride (as you saw by my first blog), and then this cool museum! But guess what! The day wasn't over yet! And what comes next is SO AWESOME! We got to stay in a castle for the night! That's coming up on my next blog!! But just to let you know- that adventure held a mystery!! This trip was getting more awesome by the minute!!

(From Marcy)  My grandson Evan was having such a delightful time! And yes- there's adventure and a mystery coming soon! So please stay tuned! Life is SUCH an adventure!!




2 comments:

Susan Lois Metler Henry said...

Bravo! A great read!

The Flight Nun said...

Thank you, Susan! I'm delighted that Evan seems to like museums as much as I do! And to see it from his point of view is a stitch! Very "cool", as Evan would say! "Awesome"!!