Finally cleared up and turned sunny today. Still cold though, only a high of 60 degrees or so and the wind was blowing hard too. Cool enough out that I knew it would be better to spend most of the day inside if possible, so that is what I did.

    Headed off to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences after breakfast this morning. No problem getting there and only a minor problem finding some place to park, as the building is right in downtown Raleigh. Got there around 11:00 and didn't leave until almost 6 hours later. Probably wouldn't of left even then but my stomach was starting to growl from being empty for so long. Lots of stuff to look at of course, a little bit for nearly everyone I would think. Dinosaurs of course, not a lot of them, but like all of their displays what they had was done very well. Other sections on space, and geology and minerals and oceans. Their major portion of the exhibits had to do with the outdoor environment of N Carolina. Lots of neat dioramas of all the various types of habitat you would find on the state. So big scenes of hardwood and pine forests, salt marshes and the sea shore. All complete with all the plant and animal species you would find in the wild. Had to look at everything of course including the gift shop where I found a couple of 'shot' glasses to add to the growing collection, as well as a star chart to keep here in the trailer.

   Once done with museum I went and did a bit of grocery shopping. Needed to pick up some more fresh stuff. Really had a craving for a good salad, so I mixed up a big one of those and also had some roasted chicken that I had picked up at the store. Right now I am trying to wait patiently for this lemon pie I made to firm up. It's not working though and I know I'll have to have a slice before going to bed, otherwise it is going to be calling to me all night long.

Here are a few pictures to look at.

Museums often mean dinosaurs and this one was no exception. This rather ugly guy is a male Pachycephalosaur. Having a skull that might be as much as 3" thick it is thought they might use head butting as part of their mating ritual.

Looks like a T-Rex, but it's not. It is actually a subspecies called Aracto-something-something-saurs, sorry can't remember everything. Slightly smaller than T-Rex, this one is still big enough, even though it is only a young one, to make me glad that they don't still roam around at night looking for something to kill and eat. I kind of like being pretty much the top of the food chain where I live.

This one is a duck-billed hadrosaur. A large plant eating dinosaur that was noted for laying eggs in nests and possibly taking care of its young in a fashion similer to what modern birds do.

A model of a Hadrosaur nest based on fossil nests that have been found. Kind of cute.

Museums also often have whales hanging around and this one had more than usual. This one is a Hump Back I think with the jaws of a Sperm Whale above it. For some reason the skeleton makes me think of space ships like you would see in a Star Trek or Star Wars movie.

The inner rib cage of one of the whales, not sure which kind this is.



The two smaller skeletons are of a cow and calf Manatee like you would find down in Florida. The whale in the background, looking like it might be trying to eat them is a Blue Whale, the largest animal to ever roam the earth. It isn't actually going to eat the two it's just a function the angle I took the picture from. Of interest to me is the fact that the reason the head bones of the whale are so much darker than the rest of the bones, even though they were all processed the same way, is because the head of a Blue Whale has a higher precentage of whale oil in it than in the rest of the body. Something the whalers of old evidently knew well.

They had a butterfly area on the top floor where they hatched out lots of differnt kinds, all of which are from Costa Rica. So I'm afraid I don't have names for any of these.