Discovery Center

Since we moved to Nashville, I knew we had to get down to Murfreesboro to visit the Discovery Center at least once. I didn't know much about it, although my Uncle Jackie has worked there for many, many years. I'm not sure how I never made it down there before! I definitely heard about it talking to other moms in Nashville and browsing through local mom blogs. Anyways, we were very excited to go visit on a very cold day in November.

At the desk I told the lady we were supposed to see Jackie and she knew just who were were and let us in! She paged Jackie and we started looking around while we waited. It reminded me a lot of the Children's Museum in Memphis. We met up with Jackie, who Paul loves. He spent some time with us there and then had to get back to work building and creating the exhibits.

There was a neat area where you could dig through the rocks to find fossils. Paul really enjoyed this and even rolled around in it a bit for good measure. Right next to this area was a big tank for turtles, including a few alligator snapping turtles but mostly yellow-bellied sliders. Paul had been looking for turtles outside in the big pond area, but we didn't see any. He was very excited to see some inside!

There was a full-size fire truck that Paul just had to drive!

Upstairs we found a few train tables! The picture is not so good, but there was a beautiful Christmas tree decorated with woodland creatures. Paul quickly found a Brio train table in front of a huge wall with a glass case filled with old trains. Paul didn't notice at first, but when he did, he stopped and said, "Whoa!"

If you look in the background of the previous picture, you see the shelves of trains, as well as two circles on the wall. Those circles were actually holes you could crawl through to get to the next room, which contained a model train set! (Of course this was not the only entrance!) The model train was beautiful! It only ran at set times each day, and the next time was at least 30 minutes away. Jackie met up with us soon after and once I mentioned that Paul was interested in the train, he retrieved the key and let Paul turn it on! Paul loved it so much! He would run around and climb onto the stools that were set up to get better views of the train.

Paul got to turn the key!

A big model Brio train that Paul could climb inside.

A fun digger for Paul to operate.

After playing for a couple hours, we met up with Jackie again to take off for lunch. First, though, Jackie treated Paul to his choice of a toy in the gift shop. At first Paul picked out an expensive set of wooden trains, but while Jackie was checking out he found this green train (which happened to be much cheaper). Jackie was happy to switch it out and Paul loved the train. He calls it his "Jackie train". We didn't have to go far for lunch. When we got there I was surprised to see my Aunt Lynda, Uncle Mark and my Aunt Jean Anne show up too!

So good! Lunch at Kleer-Vu.

Paul with Jean Anne

Aunt Lynda and I

Uncle Mark, Paul and Uncle Jackie

After lunch, we went to Lynda's to hang out for a little while. We left Murfreesboro around 3 and Paul feel asleep in the car after just a few minutes. He was worn out from all the fun! It was a wonderful day and we enjoyed seeing some of my family. Jackie really made Paul feel special and he loved the Discovery Center!