American Museum of Natural History: Frog exhibit

Boy did we have fun today! Ranger and I stopped by the AMNH to check out the frog exhibit. Actually, we were walking by with time and energy to spare (I had the time, he had the energy) and I remembered I needed to renew our membership. Then I saw the exhibit flyer and knew it was something Ranger would enjoy.

It turned out to be perfect. The space was a great size, and closed in so I didn't have to be right on top of Ranger. Strollers were left outside the room, so he was going to be roaming anyway. Might as well let him roam freely. I helped him find the frogs in the display cases, picked him up when it was clear he just couldn't see from his angle, and pointed out interesting buttons for him. He ran from display to display, just loving every minute.

Because this was a spur of the moment trip, all of these pictures are with my phone camera. There were plenty of times when I kicked myself for not grabbing the Cannon G9 or even the Sony Cybershot- both small enough to go in my purse. ah well. next time.

 I don't know if he is looking at the red frog or not, but it's cool that in this picture, I can spot the red frog.


















Oh Boy! Buttons!

















































Look at that face! He was so excited he just couldn't stop "talking" about everything. 

 I loved the "toes" on this one
































These poison dart frogs are so colorful and shiny, that they look fake. Funny story- E and I went on a Windjammer cruise WAY back when (2005- just before we got engaged), and one of our side trips was poison dart frog hunting. I was more nervous about the Army ants (the ones made famous in McGyver)- those were all over the place. 



Here's a picture of what we found:

And now back to the AMNH... 

This one looks like it could be a Muppet.  I half expected it to start singing the Rainbow Connection.

 After the Frog exhibit, we went towards to room with the big whale (this is where I most wished for a good camera- the room is dimly lit so everything I shot came out looking like the same mysterious dark fuzzy blob). On our way there we passed this tiger. Ranger was taken with the thing, and just stared at it for several minutes. If not for the glass surrounding it, I think he would have been all about "ride 'em tiger!" (which is probably why the glass is there)

The great thing about the whale room (it has a fancy name, but we just call it as we think of it, which since there is a huge whale suspended from the ceiling, seems appropriate), anyhow the great thing about this room is the open space for an energetic little guy to run in. We ditched our stroller near the elevator and proceeded to go UP and DOWN (words Ranger knows) the stair cases, around the top floor to the exhibits (several times), around the bottom floor exhibits, through the packs of school aged children and teens, around the various families with strollers and or old people, and then finally out. Actually, Ranger started making a b line for the exit before we had retrieved our stroller, so we took the elevator up and down at the end there.













Then we hit the shop. I got some astronaut ice cream to share, a cup with a lid and a curly straw, and a little frog key chain. When you open its mouth, there is a light and it ribbits.  Here's a pic of Ranger enjoying the ice cream with the key chain on his hoodie zipper.























All in all I think we had an amazing day. I just love the AMNH, and even more so now that Ranger is starting to really LOOK at the displays.

The frogs are there through Jan, and starting this weekend, the butterfly exhibit opens. We're going to have to see that one but we have a busy couple of weekends ahead of us.

ps I wasn't compensated for this. I just love the museum. I remember when I was a kid we would go every summer to the Buffalo museum of natural history. Astronaut ice cream was always involved.  :)