More Houston Museums

This morning we went to Houston Museum of Natural Science. The mineral collection there was as spectacular as I had heard, but the samples were treated too much like fancy gemstone displays and more education content could have been given, like in the extensive seashell collection. The fossil exhibit was OK, but 3/4 of the 20 dinosaurs were hidden away as part of a renovation. I did watch the IMAX Movie "Sea Rex" about dinosaur-era reptiles, which was good and educational. (I have taken a bit more of an interest in those, but that subject is for another blog entry.) While I watched the movie, the ladies checked out the very large butterfly house - they liked it, but it was hot in the enclosure. The energy exhibit was mostly about oil (not real surprising here in Texas) and informative, but I do not remember much being mentioned about carbon emissions and the possibility of global warming. I was also turned off by the prices of stuff at the museum - I saw some fossils for sale for maybe as much as ten times as they would be sold at a local rock and mineral shell. This afternoon we all went to the Houston Children's Museum. I had lower expectations, but I wound up really impressed. It was one of the better children's museums that I have attended. Some of the science exhibits impressed me more than those at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. There were many exhibits and we could have probably spent all day there. There was also a platform-and-steel cable mesh climbing area like at the children's museum in Normal, IL, but much bigger. After all this, we headed home to Austin with a big case of "museum fatigue". We had a great, packed trip to Houston.