i wasn't quite sure what to expect from the convention, but i was really excited about the venue!
norman and i earlier this afternoon went to scope out our new "workplace" for the next week. the royal british columbia museum!
now as i'm sure my regular readers know, i LOVE museums! (for you new people out there, i LOVE museums... there now you're up to speed :P). so i'm always pretty stoked when i get to check out a new one!
i have to say this museum is one of the coolest i've ever been to, and as you'll see this is kind of surprising. there isn't a single dinosaur in the place!
no dinosaurs isn't the same as no fossils or palaeontologic displays though, mind you. this is one of two similar cases show casing british columbia's fossil diversity... and that's about all the fossils to be seen in the museum.i've show cased some individual specimens for my fossil of the weekend feature. you can check these out here, here, here, here, here, here, there, here, over here, and finally there. not exactly a palaeontologic hotspot... though this is WAY better than none at all.
the RBCM does boast on very fine palaeo related display, and that is their fleshed out wholly mammoth sculpture!
what makes this display cool (pun intended as you'll see!) is the amount of detail and attention they put into it (though this is not an exception for the royal BC! just an exception compared to other museums!). they've gone all out to capture the ice age feeling... not only does really cold air blow at you from the exhibit, but the ice covering the terrain around the mammoth is actual ice!!!
from the prehistoric section one wonders into the modern natural history area. here you are treated to some great diorama's of BC's ecology.
one of the highlights was the coast's of BC displays, complete with an actual living specimen tidal pool!
(it was this point in our tour that norman and i ran into some of our fellow dinosaur olympians... team australia's boom and rang decided to tag along with us. so they'll pop up in many of my pics)
one of the most off topic, but awesome, exhibits in this section had to be the underwater display. rather than setup a normal deep sea recreation, the designers at the RBCM opted for a fun "vehicle" to bring you to the ocean (rather than the ocean to you). their choice of a rather jules verne style submarine definitely a big hit with me... i love the nautilus and 20000 leagues under the sea!
it felt a bit like sneaking into captain nemo's personal study, with all his personal specimens and collections scattered about the place.
way too cool!
after the "first" floor (i say first with quotation marks as technically this was all on the 2nd floor, the 1st floor is just the lobby, gift shop, and theatres/auditoriums) on proceeds up to the next floor...
here you encounter the human history of BC. the 19th century victoria area was really cool...
i've been to a few places (example here) with these old skool versions of a city, but the RBCM's is truly a jewel example of one. all the little touches are there. like steam coming off the pots in the kitchen (along with a mouse scurrying along the floor!). a train comes by the train station every 10 minutes (okay its a clever set of lights with sound effects, but it sure feels like a train it is that loud!).
we also ran into all of team australia here. ms. rhonwyn and logan the muttaburrasaurus were busy checking it out too.
next was probably the highlight of the museum. the aboriginal gallery.
i can't go into detail... not because it wasn't amazing. it was... it's just that my magic sense was nearly going off, and you all remembered what happened last time that happened. so i didn't stick around too long.from what i saw it was unbelievable though... though for some (really ominously magically) reason i have a feeling this isn't the last i've seen of this spot in the museum...
the history of BC stuff was cool. they had a whole bunch on the fishing and forestry heritage of the coast.
its just too bad that my time here was disrupted somewhat by misbehaving hypsilophodons! i have to say i'm glad i don't live or work with boom or rang. they are really nice to visit or goof around with. however they never stop, and are a real hand full. poor logan had to chase them all over the forestry exhibit. in the end the two leaellynasaura stopped more because they'd climbed or jumped on every inch of the display, and got bored being chased.
my favourite display in the whole RBCM was this replica of captain vancouver's ship the hms discovery. which is weird, as it is not palaeo or prehistoric...
i don't know how, the boat doesn't move or anything. yet still when you go on it...
you feel slightly sea sick everytime you go on it! the boat is seriously stationary, and yet it pulls off this illusion!?! incredible...anyways overall a fantastic museum they have here in BC. my only suggestion: needs more dinosaurs :P
3 comments:
I was there when I went to Vancouver Island earlier this year, too! I agree with you, the undersea and old city displays are really cool.
Perhaps you guys can be the much-needed dinosaurs! (For a week, at least.)
Amazing pics! Thanks for sharing!
beautiful dioramas! loved the mammoth!
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