November 4, 2011. Jackson, Mississippi. The Museum.

The official name is The Mississippi Museum of Natural Science  but the girls call it The Science Museum.   By Smithsonian standards, it is small but in fact, is a perfect size for a museum.    You can see the whole place and be out in time for lunch, after arriving at 9:30.    Everything in the museum tells of the creatures of Mississippi with a combination of live examples and  stuffed birds and animals.  Lots of interactive buttons to push and videos to watch to entertain the almost four year old along with the teens and the 74 year old adult.  We had visited the museum previously but this time we went to see the new exhibit on frogs.

We saw big frogs and small frogs, bright colored frogs and dull brown frogs and even Molly will tell you the difference between a toad and a frog.   You could, by pushing a button, hear the sounds of ten different frogs.  The Mississippi tree frogs sound different from the Pennsylvania farm tree frog but they are the same size, which is quite small.  It was a great exhibit.  Large enough to be interesting but small enough to not become faint.

Today we got lucky.  We arrived at the large aquarium just as the man was feeding the small alligators.  It was fascinating.   The tank is large and open at the top to the visitors so even though the tank is five feet high, part is below your vision so the children can watch the turtles and alligators and fish not only under water but also from above to see the rocks and trees.  The handler stood right at the back of the enclosure handing out the squid to the hungry alligators.  It was exciting.  Then we went for lunch ourselves!!