Day out at Oxford

The historical University Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge was held today and we had been warned that traffic would be bad around our area, which is near the race's finishing point on River Thames. We decided to get out of London and visit Oxford instead. We must have jinxed them cos Cambridge won for the first time in 3 years.

Oxford's an easy hour's drive away. While it's not as pretty/awesome/inspiring/picturesque as I had imagined it would be, we did have a good time just walking around. We really enjoyed the Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH) and Pitt River Museum.

Both museums are very child/family-friendly. Just take a look at this OUMNH cheetah exhibit, the card on the table actually says, "PLEASE TOUCH!". I did a double take cos I was sure a card like that would warn "DO NOT TOUCH!".


And on this table of smaller, more fragile exhibits, the card only reminds children to handle with care, with a message from the exhibits, "Children: Please touch us gently with one finger as we are very fragile." I really like the rest of the message, "Parents: Please do not stand or lift your children onto our table. We, and they, will be difficult to replace." :)



Brian and Sean are holding the Dancing Buffalo and Dancing Lion that they had made at the free family activity conducted by Pitt River Museum.

Oh, I cannot not post this picture of the first exhibit you see when you enter OUMNH. It's a model of Deoxyribonucleic acid. For the uninitiated (which includes me), that's long for DNA. Of course I thought of Dr DNA and her blog when I took the picture. (Added later: When I wrote the previous sentence, I had not read Dr DNA's latest entry in which she declared "a love of genetics is in my DNA"....Mere coincidence?...I think not...just call me Ms ESP)