Roger's Eye

The ROM Expedition June 25, 2012

I moved to Ontario in the early 1990s. The Royal Ontario Museum has always been on my “To Do” list. Years passed and it never bubbled to the top of my list. Embarrassingly, I work just blocks away and see it every day from my local Starbucks.

Recently, my son’s fascination with dinosaurs, made me think of it again.

Maggie was working on Saturday, so I asked my 6 year old if he would like to see some Dino bones. He was “all in” to say the least.

Saturday arrived and the two adventurers boarded the subway and headed to St. George Station. We entered, and were greeted by the helpful staff. William and I wandered around with no plan at all (sometimes that is the best way). I let William lead from one display to the next. “Look! Look! Look!”, he chirped with excitement. Today was not the day to stop and read. Today was the day to run behind and watch him take it all in.
This place is huge! Why did I wait so long to experience this amazing place?

William and I wandered around through all the exhibits. Some had to be experienced 2 and 3 times. He and I loved the bat cave best. He saw a mummy first hand. I made mental notes, “next time we come, I want to see this and that”.

Our stomachs informed us that it was lunch time, so we stopped at the café. At the table, we made plans to revisit the dinos before we left. Tummies full and a game plan agree to, we made our way back to the exhibits. This time William slowed down and showed me all the characters from the Ice age movies.

After the last visit with the dinosaurs, we headed to the gift shop. I thought for sure a huge stuffed Dino would be requested. Instead, William approached me with a stuffed bat toy. William promptly named it “Screacher”. We bought a mummy for mommy and a book for me (no surprise).

Saying good bye, we left the museum and headed towards my office to catch the train home. We stopped to look at the Indy Car on the tea cups.

It was such a lovely day. We both learned something today.

William is an excellent teacher.