Greensboro Science Center

As I mentioned in my Easter post, on Good Friday we went to the Greensboro Science Center. Husband doesn't get Good Friday off, actually I get quite a few days off that he doesn't. So on those days, I like to plan something fun for Grant & I to do and we usually call it "Grant & Mama Day". When I told Husband where I'd like to go, he got a little jealous. So he took the day off and went with us :)

I've been wanting to visit this place for a while. A friend of mine has been a few time with her grandkids and it sounded like such a neat place. An aquarium, museum, and zoo all in one...how can that not be great?

First up was the aquarium part. With the promise of sharks, Grant couldn't wait.

This is a fishing cat, which I'd never heard of but they had video playing
of it actually diving in the water after fish!

This is where the fishing cat lives (there's another one asleep in there too)

I was pretty pumped about the otters. I love otters! They weren't feeling too active that day so it wasn't as easy to get Grant - who kept trying to find the sharks - excited about them. 

There's an otter in there somewhere, I swear, or I wouldn't have taken the picture.

There is a dome in the middle of the otter habitat and we quickly figured out what it was for.

It's for us to visit the otters!

I was not missing this opportunity! So we waited our turn, crawled through the tunnel, and when I stood up, I was face to face with an otter! Such a fun idea.

The penguins are right next to the otters and they're so fun to watch too. 

This one showed off a little for Grant. Grant walked along the glass
and the penguin swam next to him kind of playing. It was so cute!

I love this picture :)

They have some big fish tanks with some interesting things too.

Why do guys like snakes so much?

I loved their sting ray petting area! I think it has such a fun look to it. I tried convincing Grant to pet one but he just wouldn't, even after I did. He kept telling us it would sting him.

That dock isn't just for show, and employee comes out on the dock
to tell about sting rays and how to pet them.

Sting rays are no match for sharks thought, right? Right. The huge tank with the sharks in it was nearby and there was no stopping Grant.

They're pretty neat to watch. I think Grant could have stayed there all day. Every time one swam by (which happened often and they're quick) he'd say "DID YOU SEE THAT?! A shark just went by!" 

We eventually coaxed him away from the sharks toward the museum area of the place. This is where the dinosaur bones are (and some other things but the dinosaur bones were on the must-see list). I was a little disappointed in the museum part, it definitely wasn't as impressive as the rest of it but Grant still really loved it.

Stegosaurus is one of Grant's favorite dinosaurs!
(I had to crop out a guy that just would not get out of my shot)

They had fossils and footprints and what not too. And two stands set up with paper & crayons so you could make a rubbing of dinosaur pictures. Grant really liked that. The museum part also had some really neat rocks, gems, & crystals on display and some interesting stuff about weather (oddly, Grant is very into the weather).

"Look! I'm like Thor!" Love the hand on the hip.

Pretty sure we'd looked at all the inside stuff, we headed out to the zoo part. I was pretty excited because I knew they have tigers there (which the NC Zoo does not). We hit this place first:

Which had lots of things behind thick glass. Snakes, owls, lizards, bugs, etc.

On our way out, there was an employee standing there with a skunk. "Do you want to pet it?" She asked everyone, she was so excited. Of course Grant had to pet it. I'm getting better about these things.

Having a great day :)

So then we wandered around looking at more animals. It was a warm day and a lot of them were very sleepy but we saw quite a few.

Crocodiles

Tortoises (they were HUGE and so fun to watch)

Daddy & Grant pretending to be tortoises

And TIGERS! There were two and it was just about feeding time
so they were pretty active and SO PRETTY!

 So right after I snapped the above picture, a little girl came over and put her hand to the glass and the tiger was sniffing at it (and maybe licked the glass?). It was amazing to watch. I feel it's important to note that 5 minutes before this we had noticed the sign on the fencing that the tigers will spray (pee) on people and to beware. Thank goodness this was glass because that tiger interacted with that little girl for a few minutes while we all ooo-ed and ahhh-ed and then he turned around, peed on the glass, and went to wait by the door where they're fed.

Wallabies! I was hoping they'd be more active but they're cute anyway.

They have these fun tunnels set up to watch the meerkats.

I took way more pictures than I posted (aren't you glad I restrained myself?). We had such a good time there and it was so fun to explore a new place. The crowd was fairly low that day considering it was a holiday and it was a really enjoyable trip. And while we were there we noticed they're building an adventure course thing up in the trees. We'll definitely be making a trip back when that's done! 

Napping on the way home with his new dinosaur