A T-Rex named Sue

The weather today was miserable, grey, wet and hot. We decided to go to the museum to see the latest special exhibition A T-Rex named Sue. Sue is the most complete T-Rex skeleton ever found. It was fascinating. The youngster commented that "she" wasn't as big as he expect but as we were quick to point out with a skull 1.5m long there was just enough room in her mouth for a 10yo with nothing but the feet hanging out. Her teeth were huge, I can only imagine how long it would've taken her to clean them!! The interactive parts of the exhibit were interesting that demonstrated vision, range of elbow movement and balance by using the neck and tail.

 

We had lunch at the Atrium Cafe. It was packed when we arrived and the queue drove me nuts so I grabbed a table and waited while the boys ordered. I ended up with an extortionately priced ham salad sandwich which was OK. I hate the way cafes make sandwiches now though - all the filling packed in the front so it looks good in the display case - by the time you get to the other end you're left with dry crusts.

 

After lunch we saw the Secrets Revealed exhibition, all about the behind the scenes curation of museum objects. They had some "lost" things on display that had been unearthed in the recent moving and renovation of museum storage. There were some rarely displayed objects that need to be protected from light such as the feather cloak and some dresses of significance. I was fascinated by how they packaged things like china, rolls of paper surrounded each object and were tied with cotton tape - quite an art I suspect. I'm sure we only got a tiny glimpse of all that is involved in running a museum but it was very interesting.

 

Then back home to reality and what feels like the dampest house on the face of the earth at the moment, we need a really good thunderstorm to clear the air.