Day 80: March 21, 2010

Land (and Museum) Before Time

Today we visited the University of Michigan Exhibit Museum of Natural History in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  We hadn't been there in about eight years, but nothing has changed.  In fact, most of the exhibits look as if they haven't been touched in about 40 years.  The signs appear almost hand-lettered, and a display of the "new" museum features a photo of someone using a computer that was on the market circa 1983.

However, it is a pretty fun way to spend a gray Sunday afternoon.  We went mainly for the planetarium show (the planetarium is on the 4th floor of the museum) and weren't disappointed.  They renovated the small planetarium in 2007.  Admission is free, though donations are suggested and there is a small fee for planetarium shows.

Each floor is dedicated to a different theme.  My favorite is always the second floor - prehistoric creatures.  I still can't understand why they choose to leave a very inaccurate painting up of one type of dinosaur. Instead, they added a plaque explaining the inaccuracies in the painting.  The skeletons are pretty impressive, however, with many soaring overhead on wires like the one in the above photo.

There's a floor dedicated to wildlife native to Michigan.  Nothing but display cases full of taxidermied creatures - everything from fish to birds to frogs and salamanders.  They do have a wolverine as well, but make a point to note it is not native to Michigan.  (On a side note, the last wild wolverine in the state of Michigan was found dead last week.)  The fourth floor has the planetarium as well as exhibits related to earth science - lots of really cool (fairly large) rock and mineral samples as well as impressive fossils.

I really like the first floor, too. The entryway is a circular area with an intricate ceiling - the various rooms are situated around the circle, with two curved stairways leading up to the exhibit floors.  Part of the ceiling is shown in the photo below.