Touring Our Town

Yesterday we were on the go pretty much all day. I started the day by visiting a new preschool around the corner. My friend Dawn and I went to check it out. It was brand spanking new so it was nice to see the neatly arranged classrooms and what they had to offer. I don't think we'll be sending Evan there, but I'm hoping to maybe land a job there in the future so it's a possibility Em could end up there. We'll see what happens.

Then were were off as a family to be "tourists" in our town. The Greater Lansing Convention & Visitors Bureau coordinates this event yearly to increase community awareness of attractions around town. All you have to do is buy $1 passport per person (3 & under are free) and you can get into over 60 different attractions all day. While it would be impossible to make all 60 because it's one day only from 10am-5pm, it's still a very good deal for $1 a person. You can choose as many or as little attractions to visit. We got a little later start than we wanted and had a graduation open house to attend in GR Saturday evening (more on this in a bit) so we knew we wouldn't get to very many, but figured for $3 total we'd visit a couple of the attractions. All the pictures from our day are in a slideshow link at the end.

We started out at the MSU Breslin Center for a behind the scenes tour. Now this was nothing new to Greg because he's been to most parts of the Breslin Center for work stuff. However, I thought Evan would like to see some of it and of course I was curious. Em was way more into the tour then I ever thought she would be. She was having a good time! We got to see where the men's and women's basketball team locker rooms are, and the lobby for the family of the men's basketball team. They keep current pictures posted in the lobby from the most recent basketball season. We didn't get to see in the men's locker room because it holds a lot of very expensive stuff for the basketball team. Including, plasma t.v.'s, Wii, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, Couches, Chairs, Bar & Bar Stools (no drinking, just set up as a place to sit), kitchen, oh and the teams actual lockers. Yes, quite a nice spread in there for the players. They have it so rough! This is fairly new, as the team has only had it for two seasons. Greg's actually been in there. Jealous! We also walked down on the floor of the Breslin Center which was set up for a high school graduation, and then into the back corridors where there's a wall of fame. Everyone who has ever performed (concerts, monster truck shows, kids shows, etc.) or spoke (graduation speakers, etc.) at Breslin Center has signed this wall. Hopefully one day there will be a couple Obama autographs! We also saw the practice courts which is two courts connected for both the men and women. All the Men's Final Four banners from which MSU has been to were hanging on the wall. The newest one from this years Final Four in Detroit was just hung this last week so we were some of the first to see it before most of the team has even seen it. A few other highlights were the visiting teams locker room, conference rooms, the box seats, and the tunnel, to name a few. We were even told that there is part of the lower level that isn't even finished yet and is still dirt because they don't have any use for it yet. I'm thinking the women's basketball team needs an upgrade on their locker room! I had forgotten my camera so we ended up going back after we finished some of the other attractions so I could get some pictures. So we actually toured twice, but the guy recognized us when we came back so he gave us a fast version of the tour so I could go to the spots where I wanted pictures.

After the Breslin Center we ran home to grab the camera and then headed to the the MSU Music School. Here the kids got to try out a bunch of different instruments. Evan seemed like an old pro taking on these instruments. He was able to make some sound when he tried out the trumpet, french horn, saxophone, and guitar. Here's a short video of him tootin' the French Horn:



I'm pretty sure we have one future rock star in the family if not two. Emmaline was into the instruments a lot too. She even tried to hold the flute after she saw mommy trying to play. (I played the flute in high school and haven't played since then.) I managed to make a little sound too. Here's some video of my little musicians, even Greg joined in on the fun.




The last attraction we visited was the MSU Bug House. There you could tour rooms with educational bug displays as well as handle live bugs. There were a ton of displays including butterflies, beetles, and bees to name a few. We saw a live hissing cockroach, Australian walking stick, & a huge tarantula. None of us wanted to handle any of them though. Both kids enjoyed looking at all the different bugs. Em really liked the pretend one's though that she could play with. Those were the only three attractions we visisted because we ran out of time and had to get on the road to the graduation open house I mentioned earlier. I will post more on that tomorrow, as it's getting late and my bed is sounding pretty good right now!

Hopefully next year we'll be able to do a little bit more of the tour. The kids had a lot of fun! It's really a great inexpensive way to do some things around town. Some of the other attractions were Potter Park Zoo, MSU Gardens, the two Nature Centers, MSU Dairy Store, Kresge Art Museum, the Capitol, Fire Station, and Impression 5 Museum to name a few. There are a lot of pictures in the slideshow from the three attractions we visited so you can get a better idea of the things we saw. Hope you enjoy!

Link to "Tourist" slideshow: http://tinyurl.com/np5su5