Mississippi Museum of Natural Science

The last day I was in Jackson I went to the Mississippi  Museum of Natural Science     (here's some  links http://www.msnaturalscience.org/  and  at Wikipedia Mississippi_Museum_of_Natural_Science ). It was suppose to rain that day and I thought a museum would be the perfect place to go and spend the morning especially since I had to check out of the place we were staying.

  I have always loved science museums and looked forward to seeing this one.
Once again I felt like it was small but what they had was done extremely well.  I enjoyed seeing it was happy I had the whole morning to explore it.
    The museum in located in the Lefleur's Bluff State Park and when you get there you have to pay to get into the park but I was also able to get the museum fee included in the parking/park fee too.  I just wished the weather would have been nicer so I could have enjoyed the park afterwards.  As it turned out I timed everything just right for visiting the museum and then getting to where I needed to be to pick my husband up.

When I pulled up to the museum they were unloading bus load after bus load of children.  They were all so excited to be there and it was fun just watching these little ones reactions to seeing the things they were seeing outside.  It did bring back the memories and how I used to love going on field trips to things like this. 

Once you got into the building they had very few exhibits on the upper level and directed you down the stairs.  As you went down the stairs you couldn't help but notice this:

Ancient Toothed Whale

 I knew right away I was going to like this place.

I was curious as to what it was.

So after that it was on to the other exhibits.  The next one was called stories in stone. I noticed that they children weren't in this area yet.  They had been taken to a different area where a docent was speaking to them about all the things they would see while they were there. 

I fell in love with this one.  I think it is a giant sloth- I thought I had gotten a picture with its label but when I looked at them I couldn't tell what it was so now I'm not sure. When I saw it -- it reminded me so much of star wars and I wondered if Steven Spielburg ever saw this exhibit too? 

There were other skeletons there too.  The geologist in me loves looking at these ancient skeleton just trying to imagine what these animals must have looked like when they were alive.

West Indian Mantee skeleton, MS Museum of Natural Science

Giant Beaver skeleton, MS Museum of Natural Science

 

 At the Cleveland Natural Science museum they had a Placoderm fish like this too and it had always fascinated me to think someone was able to piece it together and figure out what it looked liked.  It was nice to see they had this  Placoderm Fish - Dunkleosteus terelli fish skull too.

Placoderm Fish - Dunkleosteus terelli skull @ MS Museum of Natural Science

 In this one they did the imagining for you by them attaching the body to the skeletal head. 

One of the skulls on exhibit at the MS Museum of Natural Science

They also had some - what I call taxidermy exhibits.  These were some animals that are endangered in Mississippi.
The cougar

 the red wolf

 the eagle

 the pelican

and there were others that I didn't get images off.
They also had a very good exhibit of birds.  I liked it because sometimes I'm not sure what birds I'm looking at and its nice to see one that is so still and you can get an image of it.
These were in display cases.

 and these had a more natural look to them.

 Here is the exhibit a little bit closer up.

 One of my all time favorite birds is Purple Martins and so I just had to get a picture of one too.  Did you know they eat their body weight in bugs every day.  They especially like mosquitoes.  When they are around they really keep those insects in check.

 The state bird of Mississippi is the Northern Mockingbird so since I was in Mississippi I felt I had to get an image of their state bird.

Northern Mocking bird - MS state bird @ MS Museum of Natural Science

One of the things that was nice about this museum was that they also had live exhibits too.
The kids were thrilled with them and that is where I saw them spending most of their time.

This turtle was a big, big hit with them too  - and I must admit it was fascinating to watch.

Alligator Snapping Turtle @ the MS  Museum of natural science

 But I think the all time favorite was this two headed snake.  I was so caught off guard seeing these two heads I forgot to look and see what type of snake it actually was.

two headed snake @ MS Museum of Natural Science

 from a different view.

As i was leaving I notice this and was curious about it but then I realized it was a piece of art but it still fun to see.

I would definitely recommend this museum to others and would like to go back and see it again.
 

Jackson Mississippi State Capitol Building

When I was a child, one of my dad's goals in life was to visit all the different state capitol buildings in the United States.  He made it to most of the states - I know he never got to Hawaii or Alaska but he got to most of the mainland ones.  I think the only ones on the mainland he never made it to were Idaho and Montana and as his child I had no choice but to visit the different state capitols too.  But I had never gotten to see the southern states since he visited those when he was in the Army during World War II and was stationed in the area for awhile. 
    Since I've already seen so many of the different state capitols I thought I would keep up my dad's tradition and try to see the ones I had not seen before.  One of them was Jackson Mississippi so on this trip it was one of my main objectives to see it.

My dad like getting his picture taken on the steps.  I just liked taking the pictures of the steps since the buildings are usually so architecturally pretty. 
Here are the pictures I got. 
Here's the front.

Jackson Mississippi State capitol building

State Capitol Building, Jackson Mississippi

 I really liked the bird that was on the top of it.
Here's a close up of it and the front facade

In front of the stairs was this statue dedicated to  our mothers, daughters, sisters and wives and all the sacrifices they have to endure while men go off to war.

Closer images of it.

There was also this bell in front too. 

When we first got there we entered in the back and didn't even realize that was the back except when we looked up and saw the eagle was facing the other way.  The back was just as interesting as the front.  I was not able to get all of it in one image and had to take more than one.

backside of the Jackson Mississippi state capitol building

I wished we could have gone inside but everything was already closed by the time we got there. 

Jackson Zoo, Jackson Mississippi

I went to Jackson Mississippi and had the days free while my husband was taking a continuing ed course.  While there I decided to go to the Jackson Zoo. (here's the official link to it  Jackson Zoo  )

It was a nice place and pretty much was what I expected of a zoo.  The one thing that was it really had going for it was: it was not too big and was very easy to walk around.  I also liked the fact that it was very children friendly and I saw lots of families with small children visiting while I was there.  What I mean is they had other things to do there besides just seeing the animals.   Things like a carousel and water park features.

I didn't take a lot of pictures there - I was too busy watching the animals.   It was hot and most of them were not very active.

 I had a guide but I've miss placed it so I'm too sure of some of these names.
This might be a Colobus Money

Red pandas,

 The were the chimpanzees

 A blue heron with hoof stock in the background

Rhinoceros at the Jackson MS Zoo

 Flamingo's

it just said birds on the map and I forgot to write down the names of the exhibits that I saw.

 White pelican

Pelican @ Jackson Zoo, MS

  Cougars.  they were the only animal that was really active.  They kept on pacing around. 

Cougar @ Jackson Zoo, MS

Cougar pacing at the Jackson Zoo, MS

The  Black Bear was snoozing under the tree and was right against the fence.  I think it was trying to get under as much shade as possible.

Black Bear at the Jackson Zoo.

giraffe at the Jackson MS Zoo

Giraffe at the Jackson Zoo, MS

 I thought it unusual that the map said tigers but when I saw them they were definitely spotted so I thought they were Leopards.

Even though it was a small zoo they did have a wide variety of animals and they were interesting to see.
I had had a busy day and the zoo was a nice way to spend a part  of it.