Aaargh, Matey

The Science Center has this limited time exhibition called Real Pirates.  It is the story of a slave ship, the Wydah, that was captured by pirates and eventually sank in a storm. 

A few years ago several remnants of the ship were found along with actual pirate treasures, coins, the bell to the ship and cutlery.

Kanin loves pirates so we thought we'd take him out there.  The exhibit was really good but probably too old for our kids.  There was a lot of reading involved and they just wanted to rush by all of that and go straight to the display cases.  I would have liked to spend more time actually reading about the history of it but it was still neat to see all of the stuff.

They start the exhibit every 30 minutes so we had some time to spare.  We took the kids over the tunnel so they could see the cars passing under them on Highway 40.

We skipped naptime today and it was very evident by the way Gracie was acting before we got to go into "see the pirates".

Here is the bell that was recovered from the ship.  It is so fragile that it has to be displayed in a case full of salt water.

Here are some shackles from the actual slave ship.

One of Kanin's favorite parts was getting to see the different cannons.  I have no idea what is up with Gracie's smile.

This was a neat area where you could tie sailor knots, raise the Jolly Roger flag and look for ships in the distance.

There was a half replica of a ship and we were able to walk through it.  Kanin and Grace saw the treasure chest and had to check it out.

This was Scott's favorite part.  This is actual pirate treasure that was found.  It is the only pirate treasure ever discovered.

I thought this was a really great way to allow visitors to touch a piece of pirate treasure.  There were little holes that you could put your finger on and move the coins around but it was all under glass so they couldn't be stolen.

Once again, Caleb slept through everything right until the very end.  My intention when heading there was to take him out of his carseat and put him in the stroller so he could see the exhibit but when we got there he was sound asleep and I didn't want to move him.  He slept until about 15 minutes before we left to come home.