I'm not a huge fan of taking young kids to museums. But when I saw the Oregon History Museum was featuring the Hungry Planet exhibit, we just had to go. I had written on EnviroMom how my 6-year-old daughter became fascinated by the Hungry Planet book when I checked it out from the library a few weeks ago. The exhibit displays huge color photographs from the book showing what families from various countries eat in a whole week. We loved looking at all the wonderful, different shaped pastas the family in Italy eats. The mostly vegetarian diets of the families in some countries. The obsessively packaged everything eaten by the family in Japan (even the bananas were wrapped in plastic). And of course, the big gulps, the pizzas, the smorgasbord of junk food that characterized the American family's sustenance for one week. While the exhibit isn't interactive, there was a group of teenagers who seemed to be there on some sort of field trip filling out papers based on what they were seeing in the pictures. My kids and I just discussed the interesting differences we saw. This exhibit is only there for a short time -- closing on August 17. Note the Oregon History Museum is having a FREE day on Saturday, August 16. Well worth a visit if your kids are interested in the planet, different cultures and food. Mine are.
Turned out it was very wise of us to check out the Hungry Planet exhibit first. Because the museum is also exhibiting some of the fabulous puppets and creations by Michael Curry Design. Get this: YOU CAN TOUCH THE PUPPETS. My kids were in heaven. You can TAKE PICTURES. Really, really cool. Giant white bear. Dinosaurs! Alligator! Kangaroo. New Years' Dragon! Moose Head from the Salt Lake City Olympics. Drawings, videos, masks and puppets from the Lion King -- one with the handlebar of a bike that uses hand-break mechanisms to open and close the eyes and mouth. Dia de los Meurtos skeletons that you can manipulate with ropes: up leg, down leg, up arm, down arm, now both legs up!! The kids could have stayed there for days making those skeletons dance. Truly a wonderful, kid-friendly exhibit. I still cannot believe they let us touch the puppets. This exhibit runs through October 19. Wonderful. Just wonderful.
This museum visit oddly synthesized so many wonderful events of our summer: puppets that we saw in the Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade (Uncle Sam); puppets from Finding Nemo and The Lion King featured in shows in Walt Disney World (where we just vacationed, but that I've yet to blog about), and of course the Hungry Planet book that brought us to this museum in the first place.
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