It had been years since we visited the planetarium in Jacksonville's Museum of Science and History, so Kay planned an outing to include that facility. We had reservations for 11 o'clock in the morning which was perfect since we could then have a good lunch somewhere afterwards!
Surprise! The museum parking lot and all other nearby spaces were full and there were multiple school buses too. Oh well, we would be sharing the museum with lots of kids of all ages. But that's actually quite good since the museum is really designed for them. Educational and fun activities of so many different kinds: science experiments, displays of dinosaurs, touch tanks with turtles and other critters and so much more.
We hurried to the 2nd floor to enter the planetarium only to find a long line, filled mostly with kids. Uh Oh! We had thought we were going to see a regular planetarium show, but guess what? This was Sesame Street projected on the large dome with Big Bird giving the basics of stargazing in kid-friendly words and demonstrations!
The kids in the audience were loudly interactive with Big Bird and Elmo and a little character who claimed to be Chinese who taught us all a couple of words in his language. It was refreshing and lots of fun to hear the kids enjoying the show and answering the questions Big Bird posed. Almost everyone seemed enthusiastically focused on the dome.
So what did we derive from the outing? We saw the excellent planetarium facility, enjoyed kids being kids while learning something interesting, and learned that Sesame Street is still a big draw for children.
Lunch at a new Panera site was a delicious end to a surprisingly interesting morning.