Metro Museums Offer Unique Experiences Over Holidays

N.S. MUSEUM -Metro Museums Offer Unique Experiences Over Holidays

Looking for a unique experience over the holidays for your family? Why not try your hand at making a Turk's Head rope mat? Or perhaps you'd prefer to walk with a tortoise? Take a shipwreck quiz or create a futuristic plastic model spaceship of your own design?

All these opportunities and more are available at the two metro area Nova Scotia Museum sites. Both museums -- the Museum of Natural History on Summer Street and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic on Lower Water Street -- will be open most days over the holidays.

At the Museum of Natural History, all that glitters is not gold in the Secrets of Silver exhibition which features fine table sterling and coveted sports trophies. Every Saturday and Sunday you can enjoy bug cooking, gallery tours and talks and walks with Gus the museum's resident 82-year-old gopher tortoise. There are also two workshops for kids: Using your Microscope on Tuesday, Dec. 30, and Kit Bashing and Model Making on Saturday, Jan 3.

The Museum of Natural History will be open regular hours but is closed this afternoon, Dec. 24, all day Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Monday, Dec. 29 and Thursday, Jan. 1. Call 902-424-3563 to register for workshops and for more information on museum hours.

At the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, you can try the new interactive computer kiosk called On the Rocks to discover 5,000 shipwrecks in Nova Scotia waters. Explore the coastline for shipwrecks or take the shipwreck quiz. You have the opportunity to make your own Turk's Head or Carrick Bend rope mats, which have been used aboard ships for centuries. The exhibit Theodore Tugboat and the Big Harbour, with the original Theodore Tugboat model and all his floating friends from the television program, is also open.

The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic will be open regular hours but is closed this afternoon, Dec. 24, all day Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Thursday, Jan. 1. Call 902-424-7490 for more information on museum hours and programs.

For more information on both museums, visit their websites through http://museum.gov.ns.ca .