Visit the Virginia Living Museum

Spend a day with the family (or with just your fellow hikers) at the Virginia Living Museum. The Plan: We will meet at 10 am at the main entrance to the museum. We’ll spend the day among its multiple exhibits. They do have a café that we can have lunch at, or they have a picnic area and you’re welcome to bring your own lunch. RSVPing/Admission Price: You will be required to pay your own admission fee to the museum. I believe it is $15 per adult. P.S. Be sure to bring a camera! Lots of great things you’ll want to capture! A sampling of the exhibits: The Coastal Plain Gallery explores the world’s richest nursery, the Chesapeake Bay. Exhibits range from the dramatic 30,000-gallon Noland Chesapeake Bay Aquarium to an underwater view of the life forms that inhabit a wooden piling beneath the ocean waters. In Va’s World of Darkness, visitors come eye-to-eye with tiny sharks, burrowing pine voles, scurrying ghost crabs, playful flying squirrels, eerie moon jellyfish, and other animals that adapt to nocturnal life. Bats, tree frogs and other nocturnal animals are active during the day in this fascinating area. Meet animals, such as lobsters and rays, that make their living in the inky twilight of Va’s coastal waters. In the Va Underground Gallery, journey back through Va’s ancient past by learning about fossil remains preserved beneath our feet and marvel at the beauty of rocks and minerals that formed deep under the Earth. Visitors walk through and explore the intriguing geology and critters of a limestone cave, wind their way past the striking features of a cut-away of the fossil-rich layers along the steep banks of the James River and the colorful gems that can be found in the “jewel box” of an underground mine. Appalachian Cove & Cypress Swamp- In the two-story, glass-covered walk-through habitats visitors immerse themselves in natural environments. The cool, moist Appalachian Cove features a waterfall, a swift-running mountain stream and lake filled with mountain fish, plus free-flying birds where the sounds, sights and communities of native plants and animals are like taking an instant field trip to the mountains. The Cypress Swamp is a recreation of vital and endangered wetland habitat. This impressive gallery features an entire community of plants and swamp creatures including massive cypress and tupelo tree trunks, alligators and a snapping turtle. Four different interactive Discovery Centers await your exploration. These hands-on Centers are brimming with specimens from the worlds of life science, space science and geology. From a visible bee hive “buzzing” with activity to our Chesapeake Bay Touch Tank, each Center is sure to engage visitors. The 5,500-square-foot Coastal Plain Aviary is a dramatic walk-through aviary filled with coastal birds such as pelicans, herons, egrets and ducks. It showcases more than 16 species of birds that either breed in Virginia or fly through the state during spring and fall migration along the coastal flyway. The elevated boardwalk takes visitors 11 feet above Deer Park Lake and into the treetops to view the birds. The museum's 3/4 mile, elevated boardwalk crosses Deer Park Lake and winds through woods and a wetlands area, showcasing animals native to Virginia in naturalized habitats. Along the boardwalk, beavers, river otters, bald eagles, bobcat, deer, wild turkeys, skunk, opossum, gray fox, red fox, coyotes and red wolves can be seen. Interpretive stations help explain the critical importance of wetlands in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, highlight life in the pond and showcase native wetland plants. In addition to the animals on display, visitors can see fish in the stream, turtles basking on logs or swimming in the lake, bullfrogs along the banks and many different kinds of birds The Butterfly Garden features a variety of native plant species that provide food for native butterflies in both their adult and juvenile (caterpillar) forms. It includes plants that flower in spring, summer and fall that produce nectar sipped by adult butterflies. It also includes the particular host plants that our most common butterflies seek out when they are ready to lay their eggs. The leaves of these host plants provide a ready source of food for the caterpillars when they hatch. For More on the Museum: http://www.thevlm.org/