Happy Thirtieth, Part One: Big Picnic, Big Fish and Big Boat!

In honor of my parent's thirtieth anniversary, we visited the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque.  We had a great time!





The plan had been for Josh, the kids and I to meet my family about two thirds of the way to Dubuque.  But Josh had obligations at home (farming related, of course), and so the kids and I traveled to Tama to meet my family there so we could travel with them instead of alone.  That added an hour and a half to our trip.  By the time we got to Tama, switched vehicles and traveled to Dubuque, we had been in the car for four hours.  But the time was totally worth the security.  You can tell in this picture that Sarah Rose was more than ready to stretch her legs when we got to the park for the picnic we'd packed!

 

Our view for the picnic.  That's Dubuque and the Mississippi River in the background.  The scenery was really pretty, with the park being high on a bluff (is that the right word?) and the city being down by the water's edge.




Trouble makers!  Not really...they are all super great kids!  Left to right: Emma, Jocelyn, Caleb (displaying his yellow left that he was SO proud of finding!), Abigail and Sarah Rose.




There is a big paddle boat wheel on display outside the entrance to the museum.  Its amazing how big it was!




The cousins, again...this time with Baby Izella joining them.





The museum consists of huge aquariums, smaller aquariums (seen here), small display cases with creatures like snakes and the stalactite's and stalagmites you'll see below and lots of displays on the history of the river and its uses.  Here is Caleb getting a closer look with the help of Granny (my mother).  If memory serves me correctly, this was an aquarium/display of pond life.




And of course what Big Brother Caleb does, Little Sister Sarah Rose has to do, too!



One the aquariums was named the above,  and of course inside of it contained...



....green and yellow fish with funky numbers labeled on its side.  :-)





Caleb looking at the display containing the stalactites and stalagmites.  I don't think it was supposed to be the main point in the display, but I don't remember what little critter was in there to look at.






The picture doesn't do justice to how huge this fish was!

 



The hands-on room had real live crawdads available for the touching.  Jocelyn thinks not!  That's my girl!!!!  Crawdads should be saved for looking and eating, and leave the touching to the fella behind the tank!
(By the way, I have never eaten a crawdad, but I do know their considered good eats down south.)




Captain Caleb leading the way!





The kids are trying to decide whether or not to try walking on the logs...



They decided to give it a go.  They didn't roll, so it was a breeze.



The Boat Shop:  in here were displays of boat making, a few history displays and a hands on experience that allowed the visitor to shave and shape wood just like they did in the old days.



A display of a boat used hundreds of years ago.  The kids were rather distracting, so I didn't catch any details about it, but was pretty neat to look at.




Display of the saws and knives that were/are used for wood working.  That's my dad in the corner.




Outside, there was a bull snake that was out and ready to be touched.  Abigail is the brave one touching it here, no one else wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.  (However, the huge pump container of hand sanitizer meant to be used after touching the snake was a big hit with all the kids.)



Flood markers.  Once again, with the kids I couldn't get there to get details, but there were markers for the three big floods in the history of the city, including the Flood of '93.



On to the big boat.  They had on display and available for tour a dredger used on the Mississippi.  The kids (and some of the adults, no names mentioned!) were getting very hot and tired by this point, so we didn't spend to much time on the boat because the second air conditioned aquarium building was looking mighty tempting, but it was very cool.





One of the anchors used.  It was a massive, four ton anchor that was not used to hold the boat in place but to allow it to inch its way forward.  Once again, with the distraction of some youngsters, I didn't get the whole story, but it was neat.




Something inside the boat.  They weren't all clocks, I assume some were weather related items, but with the distraction of the kids....




The funniest memory for me from the trip was watching Caleb trying to figure out his first water fountain.  It was probably something you had to be there to witness to find funny, but he couldn't quite coordinate pushing the button and drinking. Once he figured out how to push the button and lean in at the same time, he couldn't quite figure out how to vary the water pressure. So when it would come out high, he would get squirted everywhere (which probably felt good considering how hot it was) and when it came out low he would try to suck it like from a straw (which freaked me out and I made good and sure his lips did NOT touch that fountain!).  It was so funny.  After a good laugh, I gave in and helped the poor, hot, thirsty kid out and he did finally get a drink.  He's got a lot of learning to do before preschool next month! 



The aquarium and museum covered so much "stuff" that its impossible to cover everything.  Stay tuned for more pictures of the second building including the sharks and larger sea creatures in the next blog post.