Evansville Museum

The girls and I absolutely love Evansville, Indiana.  It's such a beautiful city and there's tons of fun stuff to do with kids.  We've been going routinely ever since they were babies and we always have a full day of fun.

The museum had a special display of World War II locations made entirely out of Lego's.   They were really detailed and the girls liked this section a lot. 

This ship was HUGE.  So huge I couldn't even get a full picture of it.  And see that photo on the left?  That's also made completely out of Lego's!

Their favorite part of this museum is always the town square on the first floor.  It has glass cases  where you can look in and see a reenactment of what that store would have looked like.  And the whole wing of the section looks like you're really walking through a town.  

The candy store is really cute with candy on display but as you can see they all need a good dusting!

 

What the kitchen would have looked like with the parlor through the door.  I told the girls a parlor was a fancy living room where only guests were allowed to go and if they thought we could have a living room like that and keep it clean.

No, the answer was of course no.

The dentist office is always one of my favorites with the tiny bottles of stuff and the scary looking implements they used on display.

They love the toy store and always tell me what they want out of it.

My favorite part of town are the beautiful "streets" you walk through.

We didn't have time to fully explore all of the artwork upstairs because we had tickets to their movie and had to be back in time to line up for it.  I tried to get a good picture of the domed screen and how it wraps completely around you but wasn't able to.  The movie we watched was really cute about a dinosaur and how it was born and died but honestly craning my head back and forth to see everything gave me a bit of a headache.

We did get to see a few fun pieces of art like this Andy Warhol painting. 

 My favorite art section in the museum is the wooden room with some super old beautiful paintings.

After we left the museum we visited the train museum again.  They love climbing through all of the trains and ringing the big bell in the front.  We also have to buy Goose the disgusting astronaut ice cream they sell in the gift shop that she loves.  

The weather was amazing this day.  Not too hot but warm enough we had a fun stroll on the sidewalk next to the river.  We found a bench and relaxed while Goose ate her dehydrated and gross ice cream (I really dislike astronaut food in case it's not obvious) and just watched the water for awhile.

There's this beautiful building right beside the water and we wanted to go in but didn't have time.  I think it might be a tourist bureau but no matter what it is, it sure is pretty!

After the museum we went to eat (and sadly realized this was probably their last time being small enough to play in the Chick-Fil-A playplace) and then did some shopping at the two story Barnes & Noble that they are obsessed with.  

My girls and I had such a fun day together!

Evansville Zoo

We love going to the zoo.  Our favorite is St. Louis but the Evansville one is a lot closer and it's easier to get to without having a panic attack on the interstate.  Bug had a big procedure in St. Louis last Friday and woke up on Saturday morning feeling miles better than she had been so to celebrate we woke up on Sunday and decided to do a spur of the moment trip to celebrate.

The zoo unfortunately isn't free like St. Louis, and to be honest, it does not deserve the high price tag.  Usually it only takes between 2-3 hours and we are done with everything.

Goose was our designated photographer for the day and she enjoyed taking pictures of everything.
Literally.  Everything.

 

My mom and I would visit this zoo almost every summer while I was growing up and one of my favorite and most cherished sentimental memories of this zoo is the monkey ship.  I can vaguely remember when the monkeys were on it and once when I was in high school we brought my nephew and he was able to do bumper boats around it.  Right now it sits in a sad and empty concrete pool and needs a lot of TLC, but it still is one of my favorite things to see in the park.

There was a new bear there that was right out in the open and easy to view which made the girls happy. 

Goose's favorite animal is the red panda so she spent a lot of time checking them out.  

And Bug's favorite is forever the zebra.  When she left their exhibit she told me she wouldn't bother me the rest of the day since she got to see them.

One of the newest animals at Mesker Park Zoo is the komodo dragon. 

I've decided that we are only taking zoo trips in cooler weather from now on.  We realized that during our STL trip last fall.  The breezy and cool weather means almost every animal will be out and about instead of hiding from the heat.  We saw everything on this trip, like animals that I have only witnessed there a couple of times (prairie dogs) and even some stuff we've never been lucky enough to spot before (the wolves).

When we left the zoo we did some much needed girl-time shopping at the mall.  Goose wouldn't pick out a Build a Bear so Bug picked one out for herself and for her new baby cousin.  They discovered the LOVE Fazoli's and we found out where the Barnes and Noble was.  They were thrilled when they seen it was two stories and the highlight of the store was riding the escalator. 

We were gone all day together, just us three, and it was fantastic.  I'm a happy mommy.

Goose and Bug Adventures- Evansville Museum

Last fall there was one cold, rainy weekend where we just could not spend one more second in the house so we decided to take a spur of the moment trip to Evansville, Indiana with our Nana and explore the museum. I took them there five or so years ago and we had a good time but it's a relatively small museum and I knew they'd get bored if we went back year after year.

There was recently an overhaul of the museum and a lot has changed from what I remember so it was a great time to revisit and see what all was new.  Unfortunately it was dark inside most of the exhibits so I couldn't get a lot of photos but take my word for it that it's a good place to visit if you have two or three hours to kill in Evansville.

The quilt exhibit was the girls favorite part.  They enjoyed seeing all of the designs and being the first to point out the most elaborate ones.

I'm a lover of older art (contemporary art bores me a little, I'm sorry) so seeing this Rembrandt made my day.

Included in the admission price to the museum is free entrance into the Evansville Museum Transportation Center next door.  EMTRAC wasn't something we would have necessarily set out to visit but since it was free we gave it a shot and it was well worth it.  The history of the museum on the walls inside was neat but it was hard to enjoy it with two girls watching five seconds of the videos before tugging on your sleeve and pulling you onto the next picture.

There was a small section of a boat built inside where kids could pretend to steer with a giant wooden wheel and they fought over who got to turn it and spout out pretend instructions.

Inside the museum is a sprawling miniature train exhibit that lights up and narrates a history lesson for you as the tiny trains zoom through old-school Evansville.  We watched it twice because they couldn't get enough of it.

The biggest draw for EMTRAC was the real vintage train outside that you can go inside of and explore all of the cars.

They had a blast running through the cars and exclaiming over all of the rooms they found.  Their favorite was a tiny bedroom where the train conductor would sleep that was equipped with a lifelike statue that made both of them shriek in fright.
There's also a train bell that you can pull and it took about five minutes to drag my girls away from it. 
The Evansville museum was a place my mom took me to several times growing up and I remember being so absorbed by it so I'm glad I got to share this with my girls.