A School Day Out

Hi, everyone!  Another Friday and another month.  What a week I have had!  It’s been nonstop, but still a great one.  Our little school group got to go on its first field trip of the year this past Tuesday and we all had a blast.  We made it to the Discovery Park of America over in Union City and enjoyed every minute of the day.  It’s a newer museum, one year open, and what I couldn’t get over was how big the place was.  The grounds were huge!  So today, you lovely readers, get a nice photo-heavy post all about it.  I came home with 265 pictures, and picking the right ones to show was not a small task, but I got a few of my favorites edited and here you go, Discovery Park of America in pictures.

The day started on level three.  There were space exhibits, hands on energy activities, and the ever present museum water tables.  Plus building blocks, a cloud cannon, and some optical illusions.  Of course, distorted mirrors make for the perfect selfie opportunity, don’t you think?

Whoa!  Is it just me or does this picture look like it’s moving?

We all had a lot of fun with the thermal camera and couldn’t help but compare how hot everyone’s hands were.  White-hot was the final consensus on that one.

Then there was the quick slide that led to the next level, which actually ended up being a very big part of the day – the slide that is.  Most everyone kept going back up the escalator then sliding back down, over and over again.  One can never be too old to go down the slide, I always say!  (Actually, I don’t always say this.  Just in print and on my blog.)

My boy and his cousin quickly found out that the little scrub booties they were given to cover their shoes, made for an extra slippery ride when hanging out of their back pockets.  What is it with going down steep things at high rates of speed?  Must be a boy thing.  I went down but was hoping for a slow ride with no wardrobe malfunctions.  The older lady before me was not so lucky.  Wearing a dress while sliding down slippery objects is probably never a good idea.  Unless you’ve got experience with that sort of thing, which I seem to have a little bit of…

Level two was where the fish were.  Yes, there was a small aquarium in this place as well, along with some fishing artifacts, and what-nots pertaining to the local tribes and settlements of yesteryear.  It is a really impressive museum, if I may say so again.

From here we ended up in a war-era themed room with stairs down to the vehicle museum.  I always want to see classic vehicles all lined up in a museum-like setting, and this day I got to.  Of course there were Corvettes, and Mustangs.  Plus the boy’s favorite of the room, a Dodge Viper.  Also many, many real classics.  It was very cool.  I think I took the most pictures in this part of the museum.  Bright, shiny paint jobs with lots of chrome-spoked wheels, it was dazzling!

Moving on to the outside.  This took the second half of the day and there were just as many things to see out there.  A Japanese and European style garden, a newly planted tree maze, an old mill town display, a barn filled with antique tractors, a pioneer village, and fully furnished train cars.  Plus a seasonal pumpkin house and maze.  Did I miss anything?  Oh, yes, one more thing, there was also a vineyard, at the museum.  Pretty neat if you ask me!

And that about sums up the field trip.  It was a little hotter outside than we expected this particular day, but a couple of umbrellas made all the difference.  I would highly recommend this museum to anyone in the West Tennessee area.  I know we will be going back soon because my guy needs to have a look at this place.

Any museums that you have found particularly impressive?  Let me know, perhaps I will be in the neighborhood one day and see it for myself.  Thanks for reading!