A day at Denver's Museum of Nature and Science

On Monday, we had the chance to visit Denver's museum of Nature and Science (which was called the Natural History Museum back when I was a kid).  My father in law had jumped on a special and bought half price combo tickets earlier in the summer that we could use through the end of August.  What a deal!  Only $8 for kids under 18 and $12 for adults for museum entry, a planetarium show and an IMAX show.

I am pretty impressed by how well the museum has managed to add on new things, while keeping the old exhibits fresh and in good shape--nothing feels out of place or dated and the building is very bright and open feeling (like many others, the old building is still there and you can see once exterior walls in interior spaces now).

The dioramas, the highlight in my youth, are still really pretty and well done--even if these days we look at them while joking about wondering where "College Marshall" is.  

The dinosaur displays are still a huge hit with all ages as well.  They continue to add new finds all the time, with the newest being mammoth skeletons only recently unearthed.  We also liked that you can watch them working on cleaning off new arriving fossils, and even speak with the workers.

The final "older" part of the museum is the very impressive rick and mineral displays.  All four teens thought this was a highlight.  It may have been around a while, but it is still really well done and a big collection.  It is all set up to look as if you are walking in a mine shaft.  

The newer areas include one on health and fitness with lots of fun interactive displays.  The most interesting is the age progression computer which takes your photo and progresses it to age 70.  Everyone had a lot of fun with that.  There are also many hands on space related exhibits in the area near the planetarium entrance, that even big kids can have fun with.

There is also a not to be missed (and easy TO miss if you do not know to look for it) little fourth floor terrace with lovely views of Denver.  There was a telescope set up for viewing sunspots and solar flares--which was really nice.

The shows themselves were also really good.  We all went to the free 12:30 show in the planetarium.  That one was really aimed at very young kids, and we were a little surprised by how lacking in knowledge the speakers were, given the question and answer format.  The paid entry shows, on the other hand, were very nicely done.  Rio, my youngest niece and I all saw Black Holes and found it very interesting and well done.  Marika, my father in law and older niece were equally impressed by Cosmic Journey.

My nieces chose to see a 3-D Imax film (Great White Shark) and the kids and I as well as my father in law ended up picking the only one NOT in 3-D (lol--just coincidence, it just sounded interesting to us): Rocky Mountain Express.  We were all happy with what we saw and would recommend it to others.  

By the way, we took sack lunches and were able to eat them at the tables in the lobby.  However, food prices were not bad--sodas for $1.50, pizza slices for $2.25, etc--so for a small group dining there would be a viable option as well.

So, that was our adventure on Monday.  The next three days were a whirlwind trip to Logan, Utah for Marika to tour Utah State Universality.  I'll try to get a post up about that soon.  

--Hadley