What do you usually do on a hot Saturday morning with your family?
Are all the members of the family always agree on what to do? For us, it’s usually dictated by our kids desires. It was a typical Saturday family morning around here. As it always happens, Greta began pressing us to do something “funny”, as she used to say. So her first question of the day was: “Family: what’s our plan today?” I wish I could have replied with a relaxing home day, complete with baking, playing board games, and swimming in the pool, but it just wasn’t the case, not with Greta.
She came to me with her own program for the day: “Fernbank Museum!”. Which is truly a lovely place, but not when it’s so humid outside that you can hardly breathe. We are at the end of August, which means we still have really, really hot days in Atlanta. But when Greta has something on her mind it’s hard to change her plans.
Has that ever happened to you, you know, not wanting to go outside at all simply because it’s just too hot?
I am more of a Fall/Winter girl than a Summer one. I love Fall; the colors in nature when it’s approaching, the temperature shift outside when it’s still warm, but you can start feel a cool breeze in the morning and afternoon…these things make my heart happy. I love winter even more so!
So, when Greta proposed a historical museum with a huge focus on the outdoors, my energy went down. She kept insisting that she wanted a “girl’s only outing” and to this request, I couldn’t say no. Now, it wasn’t a family thing anymore, but just a girls outing! She prepared her own backpack and I prepared mine (I’m sure you can imagine what I brought with me…). You never know what you will catch with your camera in a museum with good company around.
This preface is to describe my mood that morning. Everything changed when we stepped into the museum.
As we approached the natural playground, we saw a huge black and yellow spider with an amazing web! We later discovered that it was a garden spider, also called a “writer spider” as a volunteer explained to us. They decorate their own web, like an artist might do. All children were captivated by this mysterious creature. We wondered why a spider might spend so much energy on doing this job, and the nice lady explained that they probably do to attract web-mates.
I told you that it was a really hot day, so Greta took advantage of a water fan installed in the park to refresh herself! I would have loved to do the same, but I was lying on the grass, trying to capture a few images.
We both love flowers. I especially love wildflowers; they radiate happiness. These particular ones are called Black-eyed Susan flowers. I was curious about the name, so we did some research while we were there. There is a legend behind the name, it says that the name comes from an old English poem, Black-eyed Susan. The poem narrates a romantic love story between “Sweet William” (also a flower) and the blonde Susan. If you’ve seen wild “Sweet William” flowers with commonly found “Black-eyed Susan” flowers, you’d know they bloom beautifully together. Reading all of this with Greta was so wonderful.
Our journey continued along the natural path of the museum. It took us few minutes to reach a really nice area where you can play Chess or Checkers in the nature! We played a game of Checkers, and guess what…she won!
To wrap-up our museum tour,
we watched a movie at their theater, Oceans: Our Blue Planet. I’ve seen many documentaries, and I can confidently tell you that this one is worth a visit! It’s amazing! I had no idea of how underwater creatures could be so clever. I knew a bit about dolphins, but there is so much more to the ocean world. It represents 70% of the Earth’s surface, but we know so little about it. We know more about Mars than about our own ocean’s creatures. That’s unbelievable to me. I was so surprised by the narrative in the documentary. Maybe it is because I am a biologist, but I was fascinated by the show and so was Greta.
I don’t have any photos of the movie, of course, but I strongly suggest you to watch it.
On our way out we stopped by the museum store. Surprisingly, we didn’t buy anything! All we needed was already in our souls from our adventure.
I wish I took more photos of our day.
The photos I took will remind me of this day for many years to come. They will remind me of my mood before going there, the time spent with my daughter, and of the experience I shared with her. My only regret is that I am not in the pictures. I will recall everything from our day, but Greta, in years to come, will ask where mom was. Of course, it was behind the camera.
My encouragement to you from our day is to listen to your kids (more than I do, please), and get in the photos with them.
