We love Children's Museums

and honestly, who doesn't? This week it was the outstanding Children's Museum of Richmond, which I highly recommend to any of you who can con some unwitting parent into lending you their offspring. It is, in fact, a museum clearly designed for the little boys of the world, in that theres a whole lot of water.
water cascading down ramps and splashing out of fountains
The fountain, actually, is part of a model of the James river, complete with locks and bridges. I personally know nothing about the James (other than that the mouth of the river is at Jamestown, founded 1607, the first permanent colonial settlement, and both the river and the town were names for James I of England, who was also the king of Scotland and son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and I promise you, I didn't wiki this at all. But one of you should, and point out all my errors in your comments. Anyway, none of this helps me with the river's geography), but I seriously doubt there is such a large and impressive fountain located anywhere on the river. Anyway, as if all the indoor moisture wasn't enough, there was also an outdoor river!
which was unfortunately located near a giant sandbox, resulting in a pair of extremely wet, sandy shorts which I suddenly remember are still in the backseat of my car (whoops!)

If water isn't your thing, there are also giant dinosaur eggshells, and who doesn't love those?!
I actually have a photo of my buddy Nat (age 24, at the time) pretending to hatch out of a dino eggshell at the kiddie area of Busch Gardens. The enjoyment of dinosaur eggshells knows no age limits!

we also enjoyed, naturally, the little racecars scattered around for some reason
the lack of steering wheel was somewhat vexing, but the wheels actually turned (you can't really tell in the photo, but the car is up on blocks so it doesn't go anywhere) so our need for functioning wheels was satisfied. But best of all, they have a cave!
it was the most realistic fake cave I've ever seen! there were stalactites and stalagmites and all! There were stuffed animals representing typical cave dwellers! (Apparently raccoons, possums, porcupines, snakes, and rats all live in caves, in addition to the more famous bears, bats, and blind cave fish. I suppose it all makes sense, but I never really considered it before, mostly because when you tour a cave, there isn't generally much wildlife.) The Widge was a fearless spelunker, crawling through tunnels, cuddling the various beasts (making me very grateful that they were just stuffed animals. In real life, I would imagine that you just can't dash up to the average possum and give him a big squeeze), and generally enjoying cave life. If you ask, he will give you a list of animals who live in caves ("Bats! possum, buggies, bats!").

There was also a large treehouse to climb through, a little grocery store so kids could pretend to shop or stock shelves (my kid pretended to eat all the fruit in the produce section), and a crawl-through model of the digestive system, which burped every few moments. Widgie refused to go in, and who can blame him? If there's one thing cartoons have taught us, it is: do not willingly enter any giant mouth. (well that, and the fact that gravity doesn't kick in until you look down, but I assure you, that one doesn't hold true in the real world, much to my dismay). He did, however, urge the system to say "'Scuse!" after every belch.

We did finish primary construction on Fort Spud, but the slide isn't up yet. My understanding is tat we plan to complete it over the weekend, so stay tuned for photos!