To round out our state capital visits, we hit
Mississippi's own, Jackson, today. Believe it or not, it was my first
visit. Though I'd been up to Cleveland, MS (a small town equal distance
from Jackson and Memphis, TN, but further west near the Arkansas line)
once several years ago to visit my cousin and her family, every single
one of my Mississippi visits have been to the coast...
Though
we weren't there very long, I really liked what I did see of Jackson.
Our first stop was the Mississippi State Capitol building where the
littles all ran to the top of the stairs (our customary thing now)...
and took a photo out in front, too...
not leaving without the "silly shot"...
Oh, they are such little messes...
From the capitol building, we stopped for lunch at nearby Brent's Drugs, at the recommendation of one of my Greenville friends that grew up in that area...
After fueling up, we were ready to spend the afternoon exploring the Mississippi Children's Museum...
Wow, what a treat!
When
we walked in, the littles were less than impressed as it looked as if
we could see the whole museum from the front desk, but there were all
sorts of great exhibits hidden everywhere...truly a surprise around
every corner, and on multiple levels! I also really loved that there
was a lot for the children to do, but whenever possible the exhibits
were built around or intertwined with information about Mississippi.
The top floor consisted of administrative space, the café, the gift shop and the World at Work exhibit...
We explored all different types of energy...
how to fuel and drive a car...
{L L-O-V-E-D this}
working (& playing) on a farm...
clearing logs in the forest...
and learning more about the great state of Mississippi while driving cars and trains...
{I
seriously LOVED this table. It was shaped like the state of
Mississippi and included the interstates and landmarks like the capitol
building and Beauvoir in Biloxi.}
From
there, we walked down to a mid-level (it was kind of wedged between the
top and bottom levels in the middle of the museum) that featured the
start of the Exploring Mississippi exhibit (that was really on 3 levels itself!)...
where we...
climbed in the capitol building (it worked out well that we had just visited this morning)...
learned new facts...
and spent most of our time on the large riverboat climbing structure with entrances and exits on all 3 levels of this exhibit...
We excavated fossils...
played in the Mississippi River...
and constructed and raced our riverboats...
before going underground...
From there, we headed over to the Wild About Reading! exhibit...
where we read books, built puzzles and dressed up like knights in the Between the Lions library...
and dressed up again to play with puppets in the Readers' Theater area...
before visiting the Healthy Fun! exhibit...
Here, we exercised with a skeleton...
{Leave it to M to strike up a conversation with him.}
shopped in the Farmer's Market (and learned a little more about our favorite fruits and vegetables)...
and spent most of our time playing in the Gastro Climber...
where we gave a few really great performances dancing and singing...
and watching ourselves on the monitor!
The absolute best was L's (and her sidekick, Cow, mooing along in tune) rendition of "Go Tell It on the Mountain"...
Oh,
we had so much fun ~ could've stayed there all day long, and then
some... We hadn't even gotten to the car and the littles were asking to
go back and visit again... Hopefully, soon...
We
headed back to the coast to meet back up with Grandma and grab an early
dinner before visiting some more with my grandmother...
With
that, part one of our Spring Break has come to a close, and we are
headed back home tomorrow. Looking forward to reuniting with Hubby and
switching gears for the second half of the week...
