Friday, July 29, 2011

Outings at Home

 We actually had a day without doctor appointments!  (OK, we ended up squeaking in a visit to a chiropractor at 7:20 before we left).  At long last, we had a day at home where we could go somewhere!

Since this looked to be the only day of the summer where such a thing was possible, I decided on The Walters.  If you have never been there, and you live within driving distance of Baltimore: GO!

Amazingly it's free, but only open Wednesday - Saturday.

The Walters titles itself as an art museum - and it is, but Mr. Walters collected, shall we say, historical art.

Which brings us to Mxyl posing in front of a thousands of years old Assyrian bas relief...
 They also have a fabulous collection of Greek and Roman statuary, including an entire room of six of these elaborately carved Roman sarcophagi.

The Zoomlians were quite fascinated to discover that each tomb contained a hole, usually formed by the mouth  of one of the figures.

What was the hole for?  Offerings for the deceased?  Some form of communication?

The Egyptian gallery was a great favorite, although I was very glad that I had talked to Choclo about it in advance.

I had not known that he was under the impression that a mummy was a monster that chased you...

Where did he even get that?  It's not like he's seen Scooby Doo, let alone The Mummy!

Oh, the home school angst!  Could he have seen older siblings wrapped in toilet paper at an impressionable age?




As it happened I was able to explain things to his satisfaction and he had fun looking at the mummies and their trappings.











But my favorite part of the exhibit was this statue, which Mxyl quietly pointed out to me, "Look, Mom, it's an ancient E-chipped-chin."

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