Our Day Trip to Atlanta’s Fernbank Museum
This week, Chiefton and I got the opportunity to visit The Fernbank Museum in Atlanta for the first time. I won some passes during an auction at his school last year. Though the passes expired in May, they were still honoring them, due to Covid. It was a bit of an impromptu decision really. I just woke up and felt like we needed something different to do, so him and I got dressed and headed to downtown Atlanta for our day trip.
The first thing I noticed upon entering the parking lot was the place was really empty, which made me happy. I tried to arrive as close to opening as possible, with that hope that we wouldn’t have to deal and interact with too many people. My wish was granted. I didn’t tell Chiefton where we were going, so when he saw the dinosaurs at the entrance, he was ecstatic.
When we walked into the lobby, it was literally a ghost town. As we walked in, Chiefton was pleasantly surprised by the ginormous dinosaur fossil sculptures, in the museum’s Great Hall, that were visible from the mezzanine level. I have to say, his reaction to the that was probably the highlight of the visit.
From there, we went in A Walk Through Time in Georgia, which is in an exhibit detailing Georgia’s natural history, in conjunction with the development of our planet. Some of the animals looked so realistic here, that Chief didn’t want to take a picture near them. I was happy to see that towards the end of this exhibit, there was the Dinosaur Gallery, which had more life sized models and displays of dinos from the Mesozoic Era, which is primarily what the kid was interested in.
Next, we went upstairs and visited the Reflections of Culture Exhibit, which showed various ways in which people dress, adorn themselves and decorate their bodies in different parts of the world. 6 year old Chief, had a bit of a short attention span in this area but right on the other side was one of the only interactive areas still open at the museum, Fantastic Forces. I have to say, that he probably enjoyed this area the most because of the hands on experience of being able to use pulley’s, launch air rockets and using balls to defy gravity. However, I was little on edge because although the museum asked that all patrons wear masks, there were some older kids and some adults without them. I made sure that we kept our distance from others and I was also on standby with my personal hand sanitizer because not today Covid, not today.
Unfortunately, the theater was not open but we did view a couple more exhibits, one being World of Shells, which Chief wasn’t too impressed by and lastly on the lower level, we visited Our Senses: An Immersive Experience, which is a temporary exhibit. Here, you will get an understanding of how your brain shapes the way in which we see the world. Chiefton especially loved the faux curved walls room.
We did not venture to the outdoor areas, where I hear that there is a bird exhibit because your girl has ornithophobia. That’s a fear of birds for those who didn’t ask Siri and we were definitely not doing that. Overall, Chief and I had a pleasant time. I believe he was hoping to see more dinosaurs than what was on display but he just enjoyed the opportunity to do something other then an outdoor activity. I appreciated that the museum wasn’t very crowded but at times it was eerily silent, like being in a library. While I can’t say that we would go back, unless there was some sort of event that they were having for the kids in the future, it makes for a nice day trip with the kiddos, especially if you arrive early and maybe choose a Monday, like we did.
