The Melbourne Museum

Two Saturdays ago a few of us went to the Melbourne Museum (above), which was my first real outing into the city.

There were some really cool exhibits there. There was one all about the human body, which had several plasticene casts of body parts like the Body Works exhibit (above). There was also a puberty section that featured life size nude pictures of a boy and a girl before and after puberty. One thing is for sure, Australians (and the rest of the world) are much more liberal about nudity than Americans. Playing in that exhibit was also a video of a birth that did not hide anything. It was really funny because as I was watching it, 4 four year-olds or so were watching it with me. They weren’t grossed out or anything, they just kept saying “wow” and when the baby was born they repeated “baby, baby!” It was entertaining.

There was a “Bugs Alive” exhibit (above), which featured some scary alive bugs (spider, above), and some scary dead bugs and things (above). Gross. Then, like any good museum, there was a dinosaur exhibit (above). In that area were displays about the Australian megafauna that used to walk this part of the earth. Way back in the day there were like 12 feet tall kangaroos, and huge armadillos (above) and other animals (above). Crazy. Finally, there was a Darwin exhibit (above) all about his work that asked if humans were genetically “too close for comfort” to monkeys (above).

All in all, it was a great, educational day.