Afternoon Excursion

For Christmas, my sisters gave Vinny a family membership to the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge. We went there for the first time this afternoon, and had a pretty good time.

They had a train room with lots of train toys (which he loved) and a lot of HO model train exhibits, which he also enjoyed looking at. There was a rainforest room, which was cute, and when he saw the monkeys in the trees he made his monkey sound. There was a kid-sized dollhouse, populated by screaming girls, which he did not go into because parents aren't allowed inside (except to retrieve their child) and he's not walking yet. But there was an interesting exhibit of old toys dating back to the turn of the previous century.

One thing we were looking for but did not find was a piano that my Ph.D. adviser and his wife (who lived in Oak Ridge for 15+ years) donated to the museum before they left town. We saw a piano but I don't think it was theirs. There was a music room in which they hold music classes, but we couldn't go into that room. Maybe that's where their piano is.

While we were there, we saw the next-door neighbor and her son-in-law and grandkids. She had bought a family membership for them, too, and apparently they go to the museum fairly often. It seems to be the happening hangout place for people with young kids.

The museum is housed in a former school building, and they've done a lot of interesting things to it. If Laura or Rachel come for a visit this year, they'll have to take him to the museum, to see what they paid for. :)