Field Trip: Natural History Museum

I took this photo yesterday at the Natural History Museum's butterfly pavilion.

Yesterday we visited the Natural History Museum with some friends.

Here is a photo collage of the pictures my daughter took in the Edible Garden...

(clockwise from top left) kale, strawberry, squash, gourds

In the garden, there were freshly picked apples and peaches for the taking. Yum.

I love this chalkboard outside of the butterfly pavilion! Isn't it beautiful?

The guide

Here are some of the butterflies that were flitting around us. :)

I'm pretty sure that these are (from left to right) a Cabbage White, a Malachite, an Atala Hairstreak, another Malachite, and a mystery butterfly that isn't on the guide.

In the butterfly pavilion gift shop, I let my daughter buy salt & vinegar flavored crickets.

She licked one, and then fed me a couple. They taste like sunflower seeds. They're not bad, but I don't think I'll be developing an addiction to this snack.

We also visited the Nature Lab. I like this exhibit because it shows all of the animals that live in Los Angeles. Being a city dweller, I sometimes think that the only animals we have are the well-dressed lapdogs people push around in dog strollers. 

A katydid. I wonder what it tastes like... ;)

Hang on kids!

Why can't we have nice little animals for nature study, instead of bedbugs, cockroaches, and opossums?!

We finished up our tour in the bird exhibit. Here is our group getting a lesson from Professor Pelican.

Also, I ran into Jane Pisano, the NHM's president. She was coming out of Age of Mammals, which had been closed off because they were filming something. She's been president for over 13 years, and in that time, has transformed the museum (the gardens, the Nature Lab, Dinosaur Hall, etc.) and doubled its membership. It was a bit like running into a rock star. She was very nice, and bent down to ask my daughter about her favorite part of the museum. My daughter said, "I like everything here, but -" And then she told Ms. Pisano that she didn't like that Age of Mammals was closed because she wanted to use one of the interactive displays in that exhibit. Fortunately, the film crew had just finished up, and Age of Mammals was reopened.