Weekend

We went here this weekend...

To see this...

Truly an amazing exhibit. No pictures were allowed inside the building so you'll just have to envision what I'm talking about. After we paid... a very reasonable $20 for the family we were given boarding passes... which had names of actual people that were on the Titanic... the goal was to tour the exhibit and then check the names of the people and see if "your person" survived or if they were lost at sea.

Talk about giving you goosebumps... hard to get our minds around that these were the actual artifacts... not replicas... the actual things found on the ocean floor! You start out looking at the ship parts... and they had a picture of the object on the ocean floor and then the actual piece in a display case. Upstairs they showed footage of the Titanic being build in the shipyard... other ship pieces and models of the actual Titanic (which Walker loved.)

Then it was onto the rooms... a First class room which in today's market would cost $40,000 for the room!! The third class room was around $900 if you were to purchase a ticket today. The rooms looked just like they had in the Titanic movie... was so glad that we had watched this years ago... made the people and events more real. Around the corner we saw odds and ends... money... cuff links/buttons... dishes used on the ship... and the menus that were served that night.

Then downstairs to the IceBerg... which you were able to touch and see just how cold it was on that night... you definitely couldn't leave your hand on it for too long... a chilly 28 degrees. You can't help but get choked up when you look for your "boarding pass person" on the huge list of survived/lost at sea at the end of the tour. Our people followed the "rules of the sea" the women and children survived but the Dads/Husbands were lost. So many emotions... I found my self irritated with the people on the "money boat" When it was lowered into the sea... it had the richest of the rich on board... and it was less than half full!! Fought back tears as I read about how a girl stepped aside so that a mother could be with her children that were already on the full boat. Had a pit in my stomach as you looked into the eyes of the portraits on the wall... read their story and learned of their fate.

It was a truly amazing exhibit... highly recommend. We are planning to watch Titanic tonight, while the museum is so fresh in our mind.

The kids... enjoyed it to an extent... Walker loved the models and the iceberg. Ainsley loved when she could read what was in the glass case and she too loved the iceberg. About half way through the exhibit we took a little break and headed up to the Discovery Room for kids, which is filled with kid activities. There are tunnels that look like caves to explore... teepees to play in... log cabins to check out... games... computers you name it. It was nice for them to have a break and get out all the wiggles before we finished the tour.