Road Trip Through Mississippi: Mississippi Museum of Natural Science

Today was a rainy day, and it was just going to get worse per the weather reports of rain and storms ahead, so it was a good day for driving.

We always tend to scout out all of the science centers and similar type of indoor facilities when traveling so we can break up our trip and let the kids explore a little along the way.  Plus, we have a membership family pass at our local science center, so a lot of the places are free for us, which makes for a bigger bonus!

I had written down and checked out the websites for all of the locations we would travel by on our way from Iowa to Mississippi, as we never really know how far we are going to travel or where we might stay overnight, so this morning I looked at the list seeing if there was a place we could stop to break up our trip.

In Mississippi, there was only one location that was listed for free:

Mississippi Museum of Natural Science
2148 Riverside Drive, Jackson 39202
(601) 576-6000
www.msnaturalscience.org

We marked it on the map and decided to take a look today as we traveled our 6 hour trip to the coast.

We started our travels after breakfast and when we arrived, everyone was ready to get out of the van.  The boys generally do a great job traveling, but today seemed to be a tough 3 hour drive as they were eager to get to the ocean and they didn't want to be in the van much longer.  Everyone was relieved to stop!

It was sprinkling when we arrived, so the outdoor events were going to be wet, but inside promised to offer a lot of animals and exhibits, so we were hoping it would be fun.

As we walked in we were greeted by an impressive, giant Tiger Swallowtail sculpture.

The special exhibit (Grossology, which we've seen before at a different museum) was in the process of being taken down, so there were boxes and such all over, but other than that, we had a fun time exploring, looking at the endangered species, seeing how large a sloth actually was (the kids love the movie Ice Age) and checking out all the live tanks of reptiles and fish the center had to offer.

Elliot was excited about the bones hanging overhead while Everett and Elliot learned about the giant sloth.

Elliot was impressed with the giant "fish in the sky" so he made me take his photo with it!

The Mississippi endangered species area was interesting too.

Who can resist sitting on a giant frog?

The large alligator (not real of course) was impressive to the boys.

Here they found a large Alligator Snapping Turtle to get their photo with.

We had a great time watching this turtle interact with the other turtles in the tank.  He kept waving his front hands in front of the other turtles as they would swim, and we still have no idea what this type of behavior means, although we saw some baby turtles doing it to their mother, so maybe it is part of their communication?

This interesting creature is a soft shell turtle.  I've never seen a live one but know that they can be found in Iowa too.

He was shy and tucked his head away.
(Everett, innocently, commented that this was his penis when he saw him.)

The baby turtles were fun to watch.

The baby alligators didn't do much, but they were fun to look at.

It was slippery, but we went outside anyway just to check it out.

Then we came back inside to check out more animals.  This two-headed snake really sparked our interest.  He was alive!

It says that both heads eat and drink, but the right side seems to be more in control of the body.  Crazy stuff!

This large, white catfish was a favorite for the boys.  He was HUGE!

You can see more of the fish in this YouTube video as well as the behavior of the turtles waving their hands in front of the others.  (The catfish is at the beginning and the turtles are the end of the video.)

After viewing the fish, the kids checked out the small play area for the little kids.  It had a slide and a play area under, so they spent a few minutes checking it out before we moved on to the live animal interaction hosted by a naturalists.

While waiting for the naturalists to bring out the live animal, Ethan found a friend.

They also had fun playing on the giant snake in the education waiting area.

The animal of the day was the Corn Snake and the kids enjoyed touching it.

Although I didn't know if Everett really liked it.

Elliot really didn't know what to think and stayed close to Ethan during the whole presentation.

 We hung out at the museum for a little over an hour and enjoyed the break from the road trip.

While we were there, and on our way out, I noticed the humidity having an effect on Elliot's hair.  It's been so long since I've seen these little curls!

 It was a fun and quick stop!