Ahh, birthdays. They happen every year, right? For so long in your life it’s all about how exciting a birthday can be. There’s gifts, treats, and hopefully friends and family around you! As you grow older the excitement tends to wane – the gifts, treats, and family and friends are hopefully still present but it becomes a reminder of the passage of time. But the one thing you can do to keep them fresh is to make them special – and if I’ve learned anything in my 43 years it’s that novelty can be the spice that distinguishes an experience!
So, we wanted to do something new – and we did! Our first trip ever to Tellus Science Museum! And we had a great time – how had we missed this gem hidden up there in Cartersville, Georgia! Over 20 years in Georgia and never have we gone that way – Cartersville is a bit out of the way but this museum was worth the drive.
The first thing you see when getting to the museum are the mighty large trucks. What a great way to open this experience for us – Rowan’s eyes lit up with excitement as he and Mom got out of the car to go see the trucks up close! But that didn’t last too long – apparently the sheer scope of seeing them in person was a bit intimidating for the young lord! He decided that they were very cool, but kept his distance just a bit.
Inside the museum were four sections – Minerals, Dinosaurs, Transportation Through Time, and a Children’s interactive section. Amy was totally into the mineral section! She took off exploring all of the various minerals – from glorious samples of amethyst geodes, calcites, and many more minerals to a huge display showing all of the periodic table elements (John was disappointed for the lack of actual Uranium!). John and Rowan also really enjoyed the dark room that showed how different minerals reacted under different light situations. Cool!
After that we made pretty quick work of the Dinosaur and Transportation exhibits. There were plenty of sweet bones and sharp teeth to see with the Dinos – Rowan was impressed! And – almost like Tellus is reading Rowan’s thoughts (or that most young people just love things like rocks, dinos, and vehicles.. lol) – Rowan absolutely loved seeing all the different cars, bicycles, trains, and even space shuttles in the transportation section.
The best part, honestly, was the Children’s interactive section. A two year old can only “look and don’t touch” so much – we needed to get our hands on things! And we did just that. Exploring with magnetics and sounds, using gravity and even generating some of our own electricity! We had a ton of fun exploring the interactive section – and we didn’t want to leave, but our showtime for the planetarium came up and it was time to go to space!
We had such a fun adventure on John’s Birthday! It was great to see and experience new things and there’s simply something magical about watching a youngster learn and experience things for the first time.
