Catawba Science Center

When we were in Hickory, Josiah and I stopped by the Catawba Science Center and had a great morning. I didn't think I'd be able to get him past this first part, the creative/inventive section. Why would we leave cars?

But eventually we went on to the physics part, which involved dropping balls and watching them fly or roll down chutes. Very fun.

I didn't know if he'd catch on to this exhibit. It was a virtual reality thing. You stood in front of a blue screen, and it displayed a set of drums around you. When you "hit" the drums it played your sounds. Josiah ended up thinking it was very entertaining and banged on the drums.

Then we went to the swamp life exhibit, and they had some really neat animals: raccoons, owls, skunk, alligator, etc. They had an opossum too, and it was terrible, just lying there are playin' dead with its claws and whiskers and teeth. Yuck.

They also had a bobcat! Josiah kept meowing at it.

Then because I'm a mean big sister, I took this picture to torture Parker. He's already seen it on Facebook and was completely mortified that I let his nephew get that close to a snake. In case you didn't know, Parker loathes snakes. Almost as much as I loathe opossums.
Even though the snake was safely behind the glass, a certain Harry Potter scenario kept running through my mind and making me a touch anxious.

All of the creatures were pretty familiar wildlife to Southerners until..
a Burmese python?


I gasped when I saw it. It was huge, and they said it was only half its expected size. Turns out Burmese pythons are becoming more common in the US as people have been buying them as exotic pets and then releasing them into the wild. In New Orleans, so many escaped due to Katrina that they're starting to overcome alligators as the top predator in the swamps.
Seriously, Josiah must have looked like the perfect little snack to him.

Then we moved on to the aquarium part. Josiah loved looking at the fish. There was also a neat section where you could pet stingrays (with their stingers removed). Mama did it, but Josiah said, "Na Na." They also had lots of turtles and some small sharks.

Nemo!

He did work up the courage to touch this sea urchin.