Maine State Museum

Last Sunday, Marty and I took Ezekiel to his first museum - the Maine State Museum in Augusta. Ezekiel enjoyed the "Back to Nature" exhibit and the "`15000 Years of Maine" exhibit the most. The Back to Nature section was a given in my mind - it is set up in sections of various "outdoor" landscapes with maine creatures that have been taxidermied. It really is a beautiful section that has been perfected over time to really capture the animals in their "natural" environment. Plus, it features live brook trout.

The museum is set up with ramps connecting each exhibit and it kind of circles around itself. Every new section we would come to, Ezekiel would say "fish?" and we would have to explain that 'no, we weren't back to the fish yet, but we would definitely go back (a few times) to the fish section'. The other exhibit that he loved was the 15000 years of Maine where you learn about the Indian settlers of Maine and see all of the tools they used and how they lived, etc. We took a ton of pictures and videos but due to the darkness in the museum, not many of them came out! I was sorely disappointed to find this out. I'll share what I did get with all of you though :)

Here we are at the first exhibit. It is a ship called the St. Mary. You are on a "deck" looking down into the cargo hold. Ezekiel doesn't quite know what to think so he kind of stood by the bench and just looked around for a few minutes.


He realizes that he can look down into the cargo hold and what does he see? A box of toy trains!


Ohhh! He has discovered that it is cool!


Here he is realizing that those little windows can be looked through and they show more animals! (he is getting ready to scootch down)


Not sure of the family that keeps blocking his view. I'm trying to push him along.


The discovery of the fact that those are windows he is looking through - and Wait! - he can see Mama!


The only video that even came out :( The end is cute though, it shows him looking through all of the viewing windows.