Night At The Museum

On Friday my daughter and I went with her Sparks Group for a sleepover at the museum. It was an eagerly anticipated event. Although I must say my enthusiasm was initially dampened due to the fact that I had been ill in the days before.

We began the evening in the Science Gallery. We had visited there before for my daughter's fifth birthday party and had enjoyed ourselves. So we were familiar with the exhibits there. From the Science Gallery the girls were taken to the lunch room where they gorged themselves on pizza and juice. I dumped the hottest cup of coffee I've ever tasted down my throat, and feeling a little recharged, readied myself for the next adventure.

After nightsnack we proceeded to the Main Gallery to start our guided tour. My daughter brought along her little plush buffalo who quickly became our guide's favourite patron. Naturally his favourite gallery was the Orientation Gallery where his bison friends were hanging out. Next came the Earth History Gallery where we learned that there were no actual dinosaurs that roamed our province, this due to the fact that it was under water during that period. What we did have were closely related creatures who would either swim or fly to get around. Some of their fossils are still pretty sizable though.

The Arctic/Sub-Arctic Gallery came next and there we had a really funny moment with my kid startling the other children with her brutal form of honesty. This was a gallery that included a section with artifacts from the inuit settlers, and a diorama of the caribou hunt. Now my daughter is familiar with the native peoples' use of animals for things like food, clothing and tools. Other kids though apparently had no idea, and were even struggling to understand that caribou are not the same thing as moose and deer. Anyway, just as things quieted here came an exchange between Camryn and the tour guide that nobody was ready for. Guide "These are the caribou", Cam "Yep, and those are the people who killed them", Guide "Um....Yes, that's right". The rest of the kids in the group were speechless, and the adults were left wondering what the hell is going on over at our house.

It was now that we decided to break things up a little bit and we took a shortcut through a secret door to the Grasslands Gallery. In the middle of this gallery is a great big tipi. There we stopped to sit and listen to a storyteller relate an old ojibwa legend about dogs, fire, and a man named Nanabush. The kids were blown away by the tipi and were asking what a tipi is, and is it like a tent, things like that. Now again, my daughter has seen one before so this is nothing new to her. She watches the dialogue for a minute the quietly raises her hand and waits for the poor storyteller to bite off more than he can chew. Sure enough in a second or two he asks for it, and gets this. Cam "How do you make a tipi", Storyteller "It's pretty complicated", Cam "Uh-huh, how do you do it". With a defeated laugh the freshly accosted storyteller now has to take several moments to describe for my daughter in detail how one goes about building themselves a tipi. Turns out he's right, it must be a real drag to try and get one of these things together.

After our story we went back through the secret door and proceeded to the Boreal Forest Gallery, and through to the Nonsuch Gallery. For those who have never been, the Nonsuch is a replica ship that was built of the original Nonsuch. The Nonsuch voyage from 17th century England led to the establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company. The replica was built in 1970 and has actually sailed 14,000 kilometers of both salt and fresh water to get to where is resides today. My daughter was positively captivated. She is completely nuts over the Pirates of the Carribbean movies, and as soon as she saw this big old wooden ship, it was game over for her. Grabbing me by the hand and using me for blocking she slammed her way to the front of the group, and nearly knocked our guide off the gangplank. Her efforts paid off though and she was one of the first to board, at which point she let go of my hand and left me on the pier. Nice. In the gallery as well were buildings that the kids could go into to see how things looked in that time period. They were also able to go down to the bottom so they could get the full effect of the great size of the ship. The Nonsuch Gallery was definitely one of Camryn's highlights of the night.

The Hudson's Bay Company Gallery came next, naturally, and most of the kids tried to lie down here. They were starting to wear out. We were beginning to get worried that they wouldn't last becuase there was still so much more to see. The Parklands/Mixed Woods Gallery was new and was quite nice with lots of winding ramps and bright dispays. The kids rejuvenated here, all thanks in part to a giant drawer contaning various specimens of animal poop. The poop drawer...you heard me correctly. The kids loved it and were crowded around it in impish chuckles for a good several minutes. It's the simple things in life that are most appreciated I dare to say.

The last gallery on our tour was the Urban Gallery. This is an exhibit of our city in the 1920's. It is buildings and shops along wooden boardwalks, that you are actually able to enter into. It gives one a really good idea of the types of places you would go to for various things in that era. It is very interesting because when you think about it, we really are not that far removed from those days. So he kids had a blast here too, but I think the adults may have enjoyed this one the most out of all the galleries.

Having finished our tour of the museum, we went back downstairs for some more juice and a quick rest stop. We then went back into the Science Gallery where we would be spending the night, to quickly get the kids into their PJs. And then it was off to the Planetarium for a 45 minute show on the stars, constellations, planets, and phenomenon such as lunar and solar eclipses, and the northern and southern lights. To my amazement Camryn sat and watched the whole thing, and seemed quite interested in what was being shown. After that it was back to set up our sleeping gear and get ready for the flashlight tour.

The flashlight tour is awesome. It takes place at about 11:30 p.m. once all the lights in the museum's main galleries have been turned off. The idea is to go on a self-guided tour and/or a scavenger hunt, with nothing but a flashlight to light your way. A lot of the others tried to talk us out of it, saying that Camryn was too young to be up so late, that she was too tired, that it was too long, or that she'd be too scared. Camryn on the other hand vehemently pushed to go, and I didn't see any reason to deny her such a rare opportunity. Plus she had napped during the day knowing that it would be a long night. With a few ground rules laid out such as no stairs in the dark and the like, we turned on our lights and set out. Buffalo Bill elected to stay behind and keep the bed warm. We started off doing the scavenger hunt but Camryn quickly got diverted, wanting to see instead if she could navigate. Taking the hand of her new 15 year old, and equally independant friend, and with a resounding "let's go" she set off to see if she could remember which way to go next. On one particular ramp I had called her back to come up the few steps like I had done in order to save time. She immediately busted my ass for using the stairs in the dark which was against the rules, and then lectured me for the next five minutes. She did really well though. She has a keen memory and we made it through the galleries by around twelve-thirty.

Immediately after the flashlight tour we called it a night. Camryn and I crept around sleeping bodies to finished getting ready for bed. Once the last ones came back from the tour we were locked in the Science Gallery for the remainder of the night. It didn't take long for sheer exhaustion to take hold and knock us out. After all we'd been going strong since 6:30 p.m. The night was uneventful, though a little chilly. We slept through until 8 a.m. when they woke us up and turned on the lights. We quickly got ready, packed our gear and headed back to the lunch room for a breakfast of bearpaws, fruit, and milk. Again I had coffee. We filled in evaluation sheets as we were eating and then headed for home.

Overall this was a fantastic experience. Not many kids can say they spent the night in their museum, and went through it pitch black. The staff did an amazing job. They were just the right mixture of hyped-up, peppy university kids, some seemingly on the fringes of society, who kept the kids thrilled and the adults entertained. Security did a good job making sure we were all safe and nothing or no one went missing. The kids behaved exceptionally well and it was nice to see them enjoying themselves so immensely. I'm really glad that our museum offers such a unique program. It truly is quite the experience and I would recommend it to anyone. We had a really great time.