The Museum of Idaho

My family and Nat's family went to the Museum of Idaho on Saturday. They wouldn't let us take pictures inside, which made me sad. They also wouldn't let us chew gum! How old are we - 7th graders? My son has been bugging me to go to this museum forever, so we finally found a time that was good for all of us - yesterday afternoon. I'll just show you some photos from the museum, which I swiped from their website.

Here is a picture of the outside of the museum, with a pyramid transposed behind it by some clever photoshop person, since the newest exhibit is about ancient Egypt. The horsemen and dirt road in front of the museum are also transposed:

Their new exhibit, which is on loan from the Boston Museum, I think, is called The Pharaohs. Lots of old sarcophagi, pottery, and jewelery:

I learned a few interesting factoids - both Egyptian women and men wore eyeliner. They piled it on pretty thick, because it helped with the bright sun in the desert. Kind of how football players put that black stuff near their eyes so that they can see on the football field. The old walls and papyrus that have been found always show men standing, and women sitting. And the mummification process took 70 days!! I had no idea it took that long.

Next to the pharaoh exhibit is the children's area:

It is supposed to simulate our state's wilderness. It has tons of little tunnels that go from room to room. Dylan and Sadie had a ball. There is also a tee pee and a mini cabin.

Then we went downstairs, to the exhibit that kind of showed our local newspaper's growth through the years, from the early 1900's onward. Then there was the exhibit that had lots of really interesting facts about Idaho Falls. It was so interesting to read about the founders of our city - a lot of park and street names popped out at me while I was looking around - many of them are named after these early, turn-of-the-century citizens:

Then they had this area that was like a main street, Idaho Falls kind of an idea. They had a little dressmaker's shop, with antique dresses and mannequins in it, a general store with barrels and whatnot, etc. Here is the little dentist's office, with an antique chair and instruments:

Not bad for a small-town museum. We had a good time. It's nice to do something different.