Santa Barbara: Museum Madness

We had the time while we were in Santa Barbara to check out some museums we hadn't been to and/or wanted to go back to see again. Our first stop with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Growing up, we had countless field trips to this museum and surprisingly most of it was exactly as I remembered, yet still a great time for the kids. 

Posing with the whale skeleton. I'm sure somewhere in my parents' house is a photo of me doing the same thing - in fact, probably several!

It took a while for the kids to understand that all the animals they would see were not alive. Andrew in particular had a few moments of fear thinking they were real!

"What does the fox say?" Yes, that's what they said when they saw this fox...

There was a really great butterfly exhibit you could walk through and the butterflies were flying all around. Well, it was great for most of us. Terrifying for Andrew.

Building a tee pee

Pumping water

The second place we went was the Ty Warner Sea Center out on the Santa Barbara Wharf.

Anna petting a Swell Shark

Pretending to be trapped in a large jellyfish's tentacles

Puppet Show

 Cold hugs...