Only one museum to date has the distinction of a repeat visit from the Green family: the Whipple Museum, named after Robert Whipple, who worked as an assistandt to Darwin's youngest son Horace. In it is a fascinating array of scientific instruments dating from the Middle Ages to the present day. The exhibit Caleb is exploring below explains and demonstrates Morse Code. Victoria's favorite was in drawer #4, which was a microscope with a fly's leg on the slide. If you'd like to see my seven year old daughter shudder, ask her to describe what a fly's leg looks like under a microscope!
There was also this captivating device called a zoetrope, which Brad is
elucidating to the two Victorian-era clad children beside him. The zoetrope was the first optical toy to produce an illusion of a lifelike moving image in the early 19th century. Very clever indeed.
Our next museum of interest is known as the University Museum of Zoology. With this huge skeleton of a finback whale (found washed ashore on the English coastline in 1865) visible from the street (!), this one is a real crowd-pleaser.
Other sightings were this elephant, stoicly posing behind two children and two mamas, one of whom is within days of giving birth. Considering the fact that one cannot tell WHICH of the mamas is 9 months pregnant, the mama on the left has decided that, uh, maybe she should cut back on Fitzbillies (bakery) runs. (ahem :) ) The pregnant one is actually Elizabeth Robar, and the little blonde cutie is her son Daniel, with whom we enjoy Friday afternoon classical concerts at a place called Kettles Yard, here in Cambridge. Though ours are the only children there, these concerts are PERFECT for children--roughly 30-40 minutes each, with a different stringed instrument highlighted each week--a veritable gold mine in music ed and appreciation!
Doesn't Victoria look all grown up in this next shot? She and the boys were GREAT with Daniel Robar, who is 3 years old and ADORES them. She was explaining to him all the intricacies of the POLAR BEAR just beside them.
And, I've saved the best for last...let's see who can guess...this animal, which is extinct, has living relatives, which are:
1. medium-sized mammals, who
2. live in Central and South America, and are
3. omnivores, with an
4. arboreal browsing lifestyle, and
5. like to hang upside-down, and
6. a common species has 3 toes
Did anyone guess ... toucans? I hope not. The real answer is a...SLOTH!! Do you see the size of this thing? I was dumbfounded. Thankfully, they are/were slow-moving! WHEW!!
Lastly, and this has absolutely nothing to do with museums, but Cambridge's newest landmark is quite the conversation piece around here. Any guess what it is or how much it cost? Well, for those of you who said, "Oh, it's a giant grasshopper sitting on top of a 1.7 million dollar clock nicknamed 'Chronophage', meaning 'time-eater', which Stephen Hawking unveiled in September 2008 ", you are EXACTLY right. Well done.
