Florida Museum of Natural History

If you are in the North/Central Florida area, this museum is a must do. I found the quality of the exhibits to be even better than the ones we had visited earlier this year (Smithsonian and Carnegie). There was a decent Megalodon and Shark relative traveling exhibit. There were some really cool paintings of different sharks from a "Shark-alphabet" book. We liked the art so much we bought the book. There was a coastal zone exhibit. The neat thing about this was they had an extensive description of the animals and plants in the salt marshes (so I can tie up better flies). I'm proud to say the kids could identify nearly all the animals in the water column display (and they've probably held or touched a live one of each throughout the summer). Like most museums, there are some really wonderful gems to be found if you take the time to look at the displays tucked in the corners. This fishing one really brought to light how man's practices can not possibly be sustained. I can personally attest to just how much fun it is to catch fish - but we all must make decisions to keep or release the ones we catch. I have kept some and I have release a ton more, but I know I can do better. The fossil exhibit was the crown jewel of this museum - one of the best and most informative displays I've seen to date. We paid the extra fee to go through the Butterfly Rainforest exhibit and it was totally worth it! Tremendous butterfly density and superb plants! This is by far the best butterfly exhibit we've been to. I was proud to show my family the awesome learning center that I had spent so much of my time at decades ago. UF is a pretty cool place!

Old Haunts, Big Lizards

We took the kids down to Gainesville to visit the Florida Natural History Museum. Drove over the Matthews Bridge on the way out to I-10. Drove through the University of Florida campus (my old Alma Mater). And dropped in to the museum which was relocated from the location where I knew it to be (as I worked manual labor jobs in the Department of Malacology back when I was an undergrad). I'll post more on this shortly - great museum!!! We had a late sushi lunch and then checked out Paynes Prairie. Like clockwork there was a gator hanging out at the end of the observation deck (along with empty beer bottles and styrofoam trays left by the drunk rednecks feeding the gators raw chicken from Winn Dixie). And we even drove through the the student ghetto and found my old house. Nice day back in Hogtown!