Thompson Family: Museums of Vancouver

Our kids are museum people. Not art museums, mind you, but any other kind of museum. A few months ago Caleb asked wistfully, "When can we go to a museum? It's been so long since we've been to a museum!" They still think fondly back to our time perusing the Smithsonians and wish we had spent even more time there. So one exciting thing about our time in Vancouver was all the museums. Here are some quick summaries.

Vancouver Aquarium

One of the first things we did in Vancouver was visit the Aquarium with my parents. It was nice as far as aquariums go, but pretty pricey, which does seem to be how aquariums go. There were lots of interesting fish and sea creatures, and a beluga whale show.

Nephi volunteered and got to eat some jellyfish, so that was cool.

We saw this very strange sea creature in one tank.

Jellies!

McMillian Space Center

We had high expectations for this place that it didn't quite live up to, but still we had a good time. We bought a family membership thinking that we'd visit more than we did. The exhibit hall is very small, but there were excellent shows on various space topics like how astronauts live in space and exploring and visiting Mars. Our boys were totally engaged and volunteered for everything they could. The planetarium was closed for renovations and an experimental theater performance on the days we tried to visit, but Nephi and the three older kids went to a show and star gazing program one night.

World of Science

This was an excellent science museum! It is part of the ASTC Passport Program, which means with our Denver Natural History Museum membership we could get in here free, so we spent parts of three days here. The shows were entertaining. Here Joseph demonstrates his faith in Newtonian physics by not flinching as a bowling ball comes hurtling towards his face.

There were also displays about phyics and the human body, as well as a big room full of optical illusions and puzzles that we enjoyed. There was a visiting exhibit on sex, which I perused to determine if it was appropriate for the kids, which it emphatically was not. It was an exhibit about sex, not how babies are euphemistically made. That was covered nicely in the human body exhibit. Our favorite place was the room full of Keva planks. Building with blocks is a very satisfying way to pass some time and we spent quite a few hours in here.

UBC Museum of Anthropology

This is the flagship museum of the University of British Columbia. The museum itself is beautiful, and it houses a world class collection of artifacts from Pacific northwest First Nations, including totem poles. It also has collections from various native people all over the world, a large collection of work from the famous Haida artist Bill Reid including his sculpture The Raven and the First Nation, a reproduction of a Haida house constructed by Bill Reid and others, as well as a visiting exhibit of art from contemporary middle Eastern artists. Throughout the day we (various combinations of adults and children) went on several excellent tours which really enhanced the experience.

UBC Nitobe Gardens

This was part of our UBC museum passport that we bought, so we spent a little time wandering through this very pretty, carefully tended Japanese tea garden. Four children didn't really enhance the peaceful, harmonious atmosphere, but it was a lovely place.

UBC Beatty Museum of Biodiversity

This is a wacky place. It's more of a resource for the biology department at UBC than a museum, and houses a huge collection of specimens of various lifeforms illustrating the evolution of life on earth. Nephi thought of lots of ways he could use such a resource in his biology classes. There are a few displays of preserved animals, and Benjamin especially loved them.

As it turns out, most life forms on earth are not feathered, furry, or cute. They tend more towards slimy, snakelike, scaled, and disturbing. Biologists and the people who put together this museum made peace with this a long time ago, but I think it takes the rest of us a bit by surprise. The museum folks refuse to pander to our squeamishness, so there are rows and rows and rows of bizarre specimens floating in preservatives in very large jars, then backlit. Like so.

Joseph got to dissect a sheep eyeball with the assistance of a biology undergrad, so he was jazzed.

The entrance to the museum features an enormous suspended blue whale skeleton, and there is a really interesting film that they show throughout the day telling the story of the skeleton. It seems that for the most part the architect thought, "It would be so awesome to have a huge blue whale skeleton suspended in the opening to our museum!" And then proceeded to design the whole building around that concept. Then it came down to the detail of finding such a skeleton, which is no easy task. And once such a skeleton is found, there is the considerable challenge of cleaning the rotting flesh and blubber off of and out of the bones so it doesn't stink like a rotting carcass. Also, they forgot to design an entrance to the museum large enough to fit the skeleton through. It was quite a story!

Fort Langley

This is a living history national historical site that recreates the fort used by the Hudson Bay Company. It was very casual and had interesting presentations. There was also a gold panning station, and Isaac demonstrated quite a knack for finding the little nuggets.