The Explore All 50 States Project
Let's Go!
Ever have high hopes for an activity and it just doesn't pan out the way you'd hoped? Sadly that's what happened at the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center. We had read so many great things about this place, in fact on the plane ride to Anchorage I saw an ad that highlighted some of the awesome activities we could partake in. I was really looking forward to learning about the Athabascans, the Native … [Read more...]
The University of Alaska in Fairbanks is an amazing campus-where else can you major in Arctic studies? It is also home to a wonderful museum about all things Alaska, The Museum of the North. It was a rainy day in Fairbanks when we made our way up the hill to the museum which is housed in a wonderful contemporary structure. Once inside we discovered some really interesting exhibits. After buying our tickets we … [Read more...]
Toledo is famous for glass production and The Toledo Museum of Art-Glass Pavillion showcases some of the most beautiful glass artifacts and sculptures from ancient times to the present. Everyone really enjoyed the opulent displays. The cut crystal was amazing, but everyone's favorites were the awesome modern art glass sculptures. I just love art glass, it's such an interesting artistic medium. It's so fluid … [Read more...]
The Inland Seas Maritime Museum in the adorable little town of Vermillion on the banks of Lake Erie was an unexpected gem. We had a great time here learning all about the shipping industry on the great lakes and maritime history in the area. Some of the more memorable things to do here were tying knots and creating signals with flags spelling out our names. We learned all about the equipment that's kept on board, how … [Read more...]
The Rosa Parks Library and Museum is worth a visit but be forewarned it was very pricey and lacked the rich and wonderful content of others places we'd been like the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis or the Little Rock High School Visitor Center. We weren't allowed to take any photos so sadly I have nothing to remember and nothing to share with you here. Probably the most interesting exhibit is a model of … [Read more...]
The U.S. Space and Rocket Center was our fourth space museum that we'd visited on our Explore All 50 project. Many of the exhibits were things that we'd seen before but there were plenty of others that were unique enough to make this visit interesting. One highlight was going inside a model of the interior of the space shuttle. We got to see how the astronauts sleep, eat, and even use the bathroom in space (pretty … [Read more...]
Sadly, we missed the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute but even so I thought it was important to cover here because it was on our itinerary. On our trip #10 Civil Rights and American Music we'd been to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, the Little Rock High School National Historic Site and Visitor Center, the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, the Rosa Parks bus stop and the Rosa Parks Library and Museum in … [Read more...]
Also known as the Louisiana State Museum, The Cabildo was originally the seat of the colonial government in New Orleans, as well as the site of the Louisiana Purchase transfer. At one point the building housed the state supreme court and was the site of the famous Plessy vs. Ferguson decision. Now the building houses an incredible collection of Louisiana history. We walked through the museum which covers a huge … [Read more...]
Because of New Orleans' cultural ties to the Caribbean and voodoo culture, I thought it would be really interesting to do a voodoo tour and see the famous graves in this historic city while exploring something truly unique to New Orleans. I booked a tour through the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum and I remember that something just didn't feel right when I got off the phone. When we arrived for our tour, we were … [Read more...]
The Cotton Museum is an outstanding place to learn about something we all take for granted in our lives and something that is such a huge part of American history. Think about all the clothes you wear and all the fabrics in your life that are made of cotton. Have you ever stopped to think about where that comes from? At one time, Memphis was the home of the Cotton Exchange, where cotton that was picked in the … [Read more...]
