A nice visit to the Tallahassee Museum

Sometimes you can tell from a website whether or not a particular attraction will be something of interest to us. We assumed from the description of the Tallahassee Museum (not the history one we saw last week) that this would be something we would enjoy.

The website didn't really do the place justice. We had a really enjoyable afternoon at the Museum - and not just because the temperatures rose into the mid-70s.

The "Museum" which was really kind of misnomer as half the exhibits were living animals, but whatever the name the three sections of the place had things we were interested in.

Bellevue, which is an 1800s Florida plantation that was moved to this site many years ago had some educational information on the life of slaves on the plantation both before and after the Civil War.

I was pleasantly surprised at the straight forward and honest look at slavery. There were written artifacts and recreations that helped me learn something even at my advanced age.

The one-room schoolhouse, which had been a school for African-American students up to and even after the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision that outlawed "separate, but equal" schools explained how Florida had written laws after the decision to try and keep the practice in place.

It wasn't until well into the 1960s that black children were integrated into Florida schools.

A church that was started by a former slave was also on the property with the interesting side note that the stain glass windows for the church were donated by a white church in 1937.

Joan especially appreciated the Florida animal exhibits which were nicely done in a wide-open setting with plenty of room for the animals. We really don't like seeing animals in cramped cages.
One exception to the Florida animal exhibits was a Coatimundi exhibit that included two female Coatis, a relative of the red panda, were on loan from a Florida zoo.

Always the bird lover, Joan especially enjoyed seeing the large birds of prey up close in the exhibit for those critters.

Bashful today were the river otters - never even caught a glimpse - and the white tail deer, which is no big deal because they live in our backyard in Michigan.

Didn't know Florida had black bears, but they had a pretty healthy one who was enjoying a nap out in the open.

We had the park pretty much to ourselves and spent nearly four hours there. The price was right too, only $9 each.

I liked the sign that warned people not to swim in places where there are alligators. If people are that dumb, let them swim, it will improve the gene pool eventually. Sorry but some things should be obvious.

With temperatures still up there we sat outside until dinner time reading. Joan made great bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches for dinner.

If you would like to see more photos of our visit, scroll down to the next entry (below the ad) and you will see more photos from today.