A Midsummer's Day

Athena's summer adventure list has been an awesome guide steering us through our otherwise quiet summer.  Every other day I'll ask her "what are we going to do today?" (ala Phineas and Ferb) and she'll thumb through her book and find one or two possible options.  Many are very easy to accomplish, like "Go to the Pool" or "Make cookies" (check and double check) others require a day's outing.

Today we went to our Kern County museum.  Athena remembers this museum from the time we went with our old CoOp preschool and put this on her list because it has been years since we've gone.  Jack and Zoe were both eager to go too, but upon clarification thought we were going to the awesome cool children's museum in the desert.  No, this is a very different children's museum, far less interesting as I remember, but something to do on a hot summer afternoon.  So off we went, though not after I tried to persuade them to go to the dollar movie theater instead.

It turned out to be a fantastic experience.  I remember the kids discovery center, the only part of the museum we visited last time, as being quite lame and even though it had a paint job since our last visit it still was completely unimpressive.  But, the rest of the "museum" was new to us and really cool.  It's not just one building but 50 or so stand alone structures that reflect the pioneering, gold mining and oil drilling history of Bakersfield.  Actual pioneer log cabins were resurrected here, transplanted from their original locations and lovingly restored with artifacts from the day.  It was like going back in time.

We couldn't walk freely through the buildings, but we were allowed to open doors, stand behind plexiglass and peer inside how Bakersfieldians lived a hundred years ago. Each house was an everyday still life of a variety of different homes, from massive Victorians to one room cabins.  Each home had a plaque describing the people that used to live in them.  One family raised eight children, right after the civil war, in a log cabin smaller than our living room.

Beyond the residences, there is also a whole little village of public buildings which helped us really get a glimpse of how people lived when Bakersfield first began.  We explored a train station (Jack's favorite), a general store, a dressmaker, a bank, a post office, a slaughter house and sausagry (ick), a drug store, a chinese tea house, a school (Athens's favorite), a church, a restaurant and hotel, and an undertakers (Zoe's favorite).

The kids learned so much in the hour we spent running around the Kern County museum, like where "old" water comes from, that lunch boxes used to be tin pails, and what an outhouse is.  We saw about 75% of the whole place, but will definitely be back.  It was just so hot today we pooped out without exploring every corner.  I still can't believe it has taken me four years to get here and am so embarrassed that I completely dismissed it when my adventurous friend Jill suggested we go during her visit last year. 

But in all honesty, I had only been to the kids section, which is still pretty drab.  Even so the kids LOVE it, one big room with a variety of little cubicles representing "Kid City."  An auto repair shop (Jack's favorite), a theater (Zoe's favorite), a fire station, a restaurant, a jail, bank and television studio (Athena's favorite).

 

I lured them away from Kid City after an hour and a half with promise of Tutti Frutti, and as he slurped the last bits of his Rocky Road frozen yogurt with rainbow sprinkles, Jack declared today the "best day ever."

So another adventure for the book.  I am so thankful for my fun, venturesome little seven year old getting us out of our usual Saturday routine and I vow to be more of an world explorer, even with three little ones, like my friend Jill.

 Oh yea and post script...not only is everyone now asking or assuming that Zoe and Athena are twins...they purposefully dress exactly alike these days and pretend to be twins.  Ah...sisters.