Musuem of Natural History, part I

A couple of weekend ago Mr. Insom and I headed to the Museum of Natural History for the hell of it. Next to the Tar Pits, the Natural History Museum was my favorite museum as a kid. It was nice to see that my favorite parts hadn't changed much and I had a great time dragging Mr. Insomniac around to the best parts.

Loved the T-rex and triceratops on display. I love dinosaurs. :)

Then we spent some time looking at the dioramas. I love these exhibits - they're so "old school" history museum - curio cabinets, rich wood panels, limited lighting, stuffed dead animals, high ceilings that lend themselves to echoes... They don't make exhibits like this anymore.

Next up was the hall of gems. I don't really wear jewelry, but even I can appreciate this bling.

This exhibit on Zuni fetishes caught our eye. They're small carvings of animals that traditionally had ceremonial and sacred functions where the holder would take on the powers and properties of the animal.

After our first date back in 1999, I attended a conference in Albuquerque and saw a small, hand-carved black marble fetish in the shape of bear with tiny turquoise eyes. I bought it for Mr. Insom, even though I had just him and it cost like 30 bucks and I was a poor struggling grad student living on $12,000 a year. I don't normally buy presents for a guy after a first date, but something just drew me to this object and I parted with the cash. When I gave it to him, he loved it and was really touched. And we lived happily ever after... lol

I'm typing this from his desk and now would be a perfect time to say something like "and I'm looking the gift right now as I write (sigh)" but it's probably buried under mounds of mail, articles, and whatever other crap is on here and I don't see it. If he's lost it, he's in trouble.


Next up was the Dino Lab, which made me seethe with envy. The La Brea Tar Pits hasn't called me about being a volunteer, even though I've left messages. Bummer.

Look at that concentration. That totally could be me.

Finally we headed to the "touch 'n feel family fun" part of the museum that features live animals.

Or mostly live animals. These pelts made me a little queasy - they were like handling carcasses. They even had little noses and whiskers attached. Gross.

But the live animals were cool and consisted mostly of bugs like the walking stick

and this adorable little guy.

I like how he stayed so still for my pictures. I like turtles too, buddy!

We noticed that it was 3pm and time for our entry into the butterfly exhibit, so we took off.

After the butterfly exhibit, we were experiencing some major museum fatigue, but I dragged Mr. Insom through the Rose Garden for some more photo opps.