A Thursday: Audubon Insectarium and the Louisiana Children’s Museum
My kids are Saint fans… or at least they are fans of the Who Dat song and ES of gold pom-poms. So how could we pass up the chance to spend a long weekend in NOLA where the Mardi Gras and Superbowl celebrations converged? Because we were driving we headed down a bit early to avoid the bad weather. It’s about 10 hours from St. Louis to New Orleans.
Because of Mardi Gras lots of places were completely closed and/or hours of operation were random. For Instance, after consulting the NOMA website on Sunday we went to see the Disney Princess exhibit only to get there to be informed that they had decided the night before to close early. Nice. The kids cried. Thanks NOMA.
In an effort to avoid the weekend chaos of Mardi Gras in the Quarter we headed down to the Audubon Insectariums and then Louisiana Children’s Museum on Thursday. It was cold and rainy– a perfect day for some indoor activities. We have been to the Audubon Aquarium (right around the corner) but this was our first trip to the Audubon Insectarium and I was looking forward to seeing what was inside. We got there in the early afternoon and with the exception of a school group there were not a whole lot of people there. My first impression: It’s not that big. You enter into a hallway with lots of little plexi-glass bug homes. Also, off this hallway is an exhibit on what it’s like underground enlarged 100 times with giant insects, and sound affects. G and ES had a good time underground.
There was a painted VW Beetle sans doors that the kids liked jumping in and out of. Finally, we came to the cafe and a room about Local bugs– not too interesting to my 3 and 5 year old. Then there came the room about water bugs. At its center was a large circular tank where 2 young albino alligators live– somehow creepier than the green/brown ones.
Next was a room with interactive exhibits and just off there was the kid’s favorite thing–the bug movie. Although only about 10 minutes long we were all kept engaged with perfectly timed mists and smell and seats that moved and poked. We all loved it. From there we moved into the room with cases and cases of beautifully mounted bugs. I got more out of this room than the kids. I am still amazed by the sheer scope of the insect world so concisely displayed. Finally, there were the butterflies. After we saw them hatching from their cocoons we got to go into the free flight area. Not many were flying, but a few were sitting low enough so the kids could see them. G had to struggle not to touch. It was almost too much for him to resist so he compromised by shoving his hand in his pockets and blew on them instead. I saw he was loosing his internal battle so we left only to be deposited into the gift shop. That was it. Maybe an hour and thirty minutes max. The kids had fun looking for the bugs in their houses but had it been any more crowded they would have been too much for them and me. Glad we went, but once was enough.
Hint: Street parking is hard to find but the Audubon validates for reduced parking at certain lots. The Audubon website says which ones. Also, if you plan on going to multiple Audubon properties they offer a multi location ticket.
After a quick lunch we headed to the Louisiana Children’s Museum. We’ve been here a couple of times. Last year the kids Grandfather bought us a family pass. It was a great gift! It is reciprocal to over 100 other Children’s Museums all over the country.
The LCM is on several floors with a center courtyard. The kids wanted to start at the top so we headed up to the 3rd floor– played on some mini Mississippi River Boats, did some grocery shopping, hung out in Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, learned about our senses, did puzzles and made bubbles. There is also a toddler area on the 3rd floor, but ES has always been to old to go so we’ve never ventured in. There is also a craft area with different scheduled activities but we never seem to time our visits correctly.
The 2nd floor houses their offices so we end on the much smaller 1st floor. If you’re familiar with Ruff Ruffman on PBS he has a little area here, there is a wooden train set and the option to play occupational dress-up. There is also a shadow wall tucked into one of the corners. The kids like it but they so do adults. After we left there were 2 parents of a very little one who spent quite a while making shadows while their daughter played with her grandmother elsewhere. We lifted ourselves with pulleys, rode a bike down a video road trough balls and used different tools to put balls in holes. The museum was closing and so we were done.
It was along day.… but the kids had a blast.
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