On Friday I took Nathan and Kaitlyn to the Cincinnati History Museum with a stop at the Children’s Museum after we ate the lunch we brought with us. We had looked forward to this outing all week.
Kaitlyn sits in an old fashioned trolley car. Note the beautiful wooden interior. I wonder how heavy trolley cars were back in the earlier part of the last century. The upholstery is quite nice, as well. Nothing is made like this for the public anymore. Times have changed… People have changed.
While in this section, we also saw exhibits featuring local living rooms and kitchens during World War II… back when our home would have been brand new. Quite a change in appliances and electronics since this time period!
Kaitlyn admires the miniature model of Cincinnati from the sidelines as she walks through it. The trolley cars and miniature trains are exciting to watch coming and going. A tiny airplane flies overhead. We look for familiar landmarks and buildings. We admire the old fashioned cars and horse and buggies.
In exchange for my drivers license we got a box of “Thomas” trains to play with on the wooden train tracks. Nathan thinks this is great fun before he discovers the picture window (put at the old bus entrance into the building) where he can stand and overlook the city. Kaitlyn spends a bit of time playing with “the green train” and is relieved to see her brother find other interests. They both enjoy trains but in entirely different ways at this point.
Kaitlyn builds a log cabin out of her flat boat which was used to float down the canals and rivers in the early days by settlers. We see how little people brought with them and how they packed what little they did bring. There is a chest inside with dress-up clothes and a little rocker.
Amazingly, many passengers of boats in the early days did not have money for a room when they traveled. They didn’t travel with much and bought tickets as a deck passenger. They brought their own food and bedding so they could eat, sleep and travel on deck, whatever the elements might bring! This was acceptable and normal.
After going through some very dark woods where we saw many Native Americans, frontiersmen and soldiers we came to an area with some Lincoln Logs that Kaitlyn was eager to build a cabin with. It had to have a blue window and a blue door. She could not get to this area fast enough because she could hear Indian drums, marching soldiers and gun shots through the entire exhibit. Combine that with the maze-like quality to the exhibit and she was sure they were after her around every corner. She went quick as a fox and demanded quiet from all so we would be more trouble to find. I found by this time that I had some very hungry children.
By the time we were done with the History Museum the rotunda had almost entirely emptied so we had our pick of tables and sat down to eat sandwiches, strawberries, muffins and milk. Then we were ready for more and chose to visit the Children’s Museum for the remainder of our time there.
Nathan and Kaitlyn had a ball crawling through this great big caterpillar in one of the science areas.
Nathan found it quite exciting to play peek-a-boo with us.
The fish and turtles were fascinating to him as well.
Nathan proved fearless at his first trip to “The Woods”. He crawled out of a big spider web.
He giggled when Kaitlyn disappeared up a ladder inside a very dark tree trunk and reappeared flying down a chute in another tree trunk a couple of minutes later.
Nathan and I climbed through a cave filled with spiders and up a narrow flight of stairs to a tree house and saw Kaitlyn traveling through this rope tunnel about 15 feet above the ground. Nathan thought he wouldn’t mind the height of that experience at all but I decided to grab his ankle when he kept going. His small foot was already getting entangled in the rope and I didn’t want to have to risk going “out on a limb”. This area is really for older kids in the first place but it was late enough in the afternoon that the place had emptied out and he had a little opportunity to explore on his own terms as far as I would let him.
Up in the tree house, Nathan found a treasure chest and an old mirror. We looked out and saw Kaitlyn traveling through another rope tunnel high above us.
The two children ended up in the tree house to eat an imaginary snack before moving on. Nathan is very good at having tea parties with imaginary food. He samples it all whenever you serve his some goodies.
I am amazed at all he understands.
We ended a very fun afternoon with a quick stop at the Water Works area. Nathan discovered that he is tall enough to reach into some areas on his own even without a step stool. He LOVES splashing the water and after some enthusiastic play emerged into the sunshiny afternoon quite wet from this experience.
Kaitlyn put on a water smock and had a ball. The only thing that would have made it better for her would be to add some plants that need drinks of water, she commented.
All too soon it was time to pick up children from school so we quickly made our way to the car, threw on some dry clothing for those who needed it and left with hopes of returning again soon.
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