The Natural History Museum and Sea Center

I always tell people that I have become so enamored with all of the resources that Santa Barbara has to offer young families since I became a mom.  The Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and The Ty Warner Sea Center are no exception.  I was originally saving this as a back-post because we first visited the Natural History Museum on August 27th, but we have made some follow-up visits so I now have more current pictures to include. 
On our first visit (20 months, 4 days old), we wanted to check out the entire museum, but particularly the Butterflies Alive exhibit, which was only open for one more week.  We decided to buy a day pass and evaluate if we wanted to become members for the year based on Graham’s experience.    
The museum was so much fun!  It is totally set up for kids with all the exhibits being toddler height so Graham could go right up to each display and take a good, long, look:

The kids are allowed to touch everything from the animal furs, to the bird bones, to the shovel in the model excavation site:

Although all the different spots were fun, Graham really hit his stride when we made it to the bird wing (no pun intended, ha ha).  He loved it and ran around identifying ducks and owls and saying “tweet, tweet”:

In front, you are greeted by an enormous replica whale skeleton and in back there is a bridge over a stream leading to a variety of plants and trees. 
We made our way to the Butterflies Alive tent and entered an area full of all different types of butterflies.  The exhibit held Graham’s interest long enough for us to take a few pictures:

but once he found the water fountain, he no longer had interest in anything else:

We headed back to the main part of the museum but not before forcing Graham to pose in front of the exhibit.  Hum, I’m not sure he loved that part:

A few weeks later, we decided to become members of the museum which also gave us membership to the Sea Center (a small aquatic life museum on the pier).  Graham and I headed over to check it out (20 months, 22 days old).  Graham was thrilled to point out the ocean, boats, and birds as we drove onto the pier, before we even got into the museum. 
At the entrance to the museum is a tank with rays and sharks.  Graham was curious, but a little scared when the attendant brought over a shark for him to look at:

Next, Graham got to explore a tunnel just his size:

We headed upstairs to the touch tanks and I loved seeing the octopus and seahorses, but Graham was ready to leave and took a side exit door straight out to the pier.  His favorite part of the trip was running along the pier:

He was a little distraught when he discovered he could not get back in through the same exit door, but quickly recovered:

A few days ago, I joined my buddies Laurie and Cherise for another trip to the museum (21 months, 6 days old).  This time, Graham recognized the museum and had fun running around with his gal pals.  Cherise let him look at pictures on her camera, which was a real treat:

He spent some time in the outside sandbox that was equipped with brushes to dust the sand away and expose the underlying fossils:

but his favorite remained the bird exhibit.  He was so proud of finding a new bird he identified as the “silly goose”:

Kenzie and Penelope needed to go home for lunch, but since Graham eats later, we decided to squeeze in another trip to the Sea Center before calling it a day.  On this trip, Graham was much braver and went right up to the ray and shark tank. 
Look at the ray coming up to greet Graham:

When it was time to view the shark, look at how brave Graham was, not only petting the shark, but also deciding to give it a splash or two when he was done:

Graham was energized when we left the Sea Center so we visited a new park before going home.  The park had a play structure just perfect for Graham’s size:

It also was completely fenced in, so I let Graham run up and down the grassy hill while I was able to watch from a distance. 
I see many more history museum/sea center/park trips in our future!