Wednesday, January 21, 2015

The Children's Museum of the Treasure Coast, Florida--Part I

The Children's Museum of the Treasure Coast is famous for having a gigantic pirate ship inside. We wanted to see it, so we made a visit over Christmas. Parking is near the Life's Journey Fountain, a memorial to a woman who died too young.

Life's Journey Fountain

Museum entrance

Once inside, J and L made a beeline for the boat, hoping for fun adventures. Christmas decorations were still everywhere.

Posing by the Christmas tree

The ship Marti Frances

A quick climb brought us on deck where the most popular duty is firing the cannons!

On deck

J and L work together

View from outside the ship (sort of)

J gathers more ammo

Later, their cousins joined in the fun.

Fire cannon number one!

Fire cannon number two!

Cannons back in the day could be fired eight times an hour by a crew of six cannoneers. It took a lot of coordinated work. Lucky for the kids they could do it single-handed (mostly).

Not as fun in real life

Also on deck are scents of the sea and spyglasses.

Smelling land?

L looks for land

A capstan sits in the middle of the deck so children can weigh anchor. The simple mechanical device allows a few seamen to lift a thousand pound anchor from the sea bed!

Capstan in action

After such hard work, J and L went below decks for a rest.

L in the hammock with crocs on

J's well deserved rest

Other displays below deck discussed food and cooking, but the most fun thing was this model boat.

The San Jose

Just outside the ship J and L tried their luck at fishing.

J works a line

He catches the famous blur fish

After getting their fill of the pirate ship, we headed off to see the rest of the museum. Which will be in tomorrow's post!

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