Discovery Park of America

Over the past year and a half when Josh and I would go through or to Union City, TN, we would see this crazy looking structure being built. And then there was a sign to give the structure a name: Discovery Park of America. We immediately looked it up and found that it would be opening Fall 2013. The date seemed so far off. But then November 1st rolled around and Josh and I didn't have to work so we were looking for things to do with the boys. Suddenly we remembered Discovery Park...and lo and behold, November 1st was the ribbon cutting grand opening! So we loaded the kids up and drove the hour drive, waited in line and bought tickets (well, year memberships!) and then went and played. The line to get tickets took forever...and the boys were antsy. But once we got inside we pretty much had the place to ourselves, oh and media crews! Most people were buying tickets/memberships then leaving. This place is such a gem to our region and is so neat...the boys enjoyed it and it was super cool for adults too! I can't wait to go back and explore some more.

Toddler center! The bathtub in the background behind Keagan is filled with this substance called Living Sand. It is sand and looks like sand, plays like sand, builds like sand...but it isn't messy! It is so strange that I can't describe it...you'd just have to play with it.

 

The water discovery station. Keagan and Finn both really enjoyed this station. They were both soaked by the time it was over.

 

While I found the entire park amazing, I thought it was really cool to step into one part of the museum and see this: a reproduction of the Ark of the Covenant. I have been reading the Bible chronologically since January (we are doing this as a church) and the Old Testament talks a lot about the Ark of the Covenant. The descriptions are very detailed in the Bible but it was so neat to visualize it!

Getting to play "inside" the aquarium!

Outside on the grounds: first stop was a settlement and Keagan learned about making chairs and Finn, well...Finn learned about what gravel tastes like. And kept trying to run away from us!

Tractor museum! Since no one was in there we pretty much let the boys run wild! Wide open spaces...

 

Ringing the school bell!

Back inside the main museum we found some old cars, war memorabilia, and aircraft. The kids went nuts when they realized they could actually play inside the helicopter! Oh me...  And just to give you a visual, we had to take the little one out of the exhibit kicking and screaming (literally). Good thing there weren't a ton of people in there!

No one is too old, or too young, for discovering stuff! :)