Touring the Virginia Marine Science
Museum in Virginia Beach (Virginia) by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget
After
our crêpe lunch, we set out for the Virginia Marine Science Museum in Virginia
Beach.
Huge
water-filled tanks that extended over our heads lined the entryway into the
Museum. Seals swished back and forth.
Florence
tried to outrun them and squealed as she banged on the tank walls. The seals liked racing Florence. It took us thirty minutes to enter the
museum.
The
IMAX movie Into the Deep made Florence excited about visiting the rest of the
museum. The stingrays had a large,
circular touch tank. They had no
stingers, so you could pet them as they wheeled around the tank.
Florence
plunged her hands in the water and said, “ew,” when one of the rays slid under
her fingers.
After
Florence’s pioneering efforts, I tried my chances and had to agree that the ray
felt like slimy velvet. I learned that
the small, black sacs that we found on the beach were called “mermaid’s
purses.” Their hard container covers
contain the stingray eggs.
My
favorite exhibit was a pair of giant tongs that you plunged down into a pool of
water from above to go “tonging” for oysters.
I
liked the exhibit on sand dunes as well, but found it hard to believe that the
three- and four-foot high dunes in Virginia Beach were a true defense against
hurricanes.
The
Museum had lots of creatures that you could pick up and examine. Florence tried to catch a hermit crab out of
its shell. She caressed the rough
surface of a starfish and gently picked up a sea urchin. She thought the sand dollars were boring,
but, at least, she knew what they were.
Florence
cringed when a docent knew what they were.
She cringed when a docent offered her a baby crab to pick up.
Then,
the docent fished the horseshoe crab out of the tank and flipped it over, so we
could touch the wiggly, spiny feet.
We
learned that horseshoe crabs are scavengers, so they lack “fighting equipment.”
The
Coastal River Room held even more treasures.
Florence watched turtles swim around and asked if she could have one.
Naysayer
mom said, “No and stop that” when I told her not to rile the copperheads and
rattlesnakes that were behind a glass case that she was lightly knocking on to
see if they would move.
By
this time, we had been in the museum 3 ½ hours.
Florence and her parents were losing patience with one another.
We
would visit the marsh exhibit and the nature trail at a later date. Fun and education collided in this museum.
Laurent
slept in the next day and enjoyed it immensely.
We still had 4 a.m. mess duty.
I
read magazines while Florence made chalk drawings outside with her
friends. They played other games, too,
like Hide ‘n’ Seek, Red Light 123, Simon Says, and sang songs.
I
cracked up when I remembered making the French Club at Cass Tech in Detroit
(Michigan) play those games as a social activity when we did not have
money. We all speak French pretty well,
because people in Detroit are often “short of funds."
By
Ruth Pennington Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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