Titanic

I think I have always been fascinated with the story of the Titanic.
Is it weird that I am fascinated by a story where over a thousand people die?

I remember as a kid reading a National Geographic magazine (my grandma always got us subscriptions to it) about how they had found the wreckage and were beginning to take things and preserve them. I couldn't believe these things could still survive under water for 75 years!

So onto the reason for this post.......................

On Saturdays while Aaron is working on his Master's class, Brady and I try to find things to do away from the house to give him a little quiet time. I saw on TV the other day there is this traveling museum of Titanic artifacts and I thought that might be kind of interesting to see.

So Brady and I headed across town to the Tucson Mall (I wanted to go to the mall anyway as well so it worked out!). The exhibit was in two big trailers hooked together and the line was huge to get in because it was free! They said it would be about and hour and a half so I thought, Brady has snacks, he had a little nap on the way over and there's lots of kids in line in this parking lot he can play with. So we waited..........for 3 hours! He was actually really good and really dirty by the time we made it through the line because he was playing in this dirt pile for awhile (you'll see his dirty shoes in a picture farther down below).

But it was kind of neat the way they did it. They give you a boarding pass with a real passenger's name, what class they were traveling on the ship, their story and who they were traveling with. At the end of the exhibit you can look on the Memorial Wall with all the passengers listed, what class they were in and if they were rescued off the Titanic or if they died.

Our boarding passes-the lady I had survived with her daughter, but her husband did not make it. Brady's guy and his brother did not survive but his wife did.

They also give you a free photo in front of a backdrop of the Grand Staircase on the Titanic.

The whole time we were in line, he kept saying "Big Boat" because that's what was on the side of the exhibit so he kept thinking we were going on a boat. He was also excited because we were under a "tent" (covered awning) for our picture. And then he thought when we went in the exhibit we were actually in a boat. Oh well, I wasn't going to tell him otherwise and ruin his fun!

The exhibit was really neat, and unfortunately you couldn't take any pictures because of the lighting and they just didn't want you to! They had about 50 artifacts (which is only a small number compared to what they have recovered), and this is the first time they have sent artifacts on display on their own outside of regular museum exhibits so that's kind of cool. And they started their tour here in Tucson!

But the most ironic thing that they had was a printed and filled out paper receipt for insurance on their luggage filled out before they set sail! This wasn't discovered until 1987 so I'm sure that lady never got her money back! But the ink survived under water all those years! Crazy!!

Click HERE to see if the exhibit is coming to an area near you!

Here is Brady riding on the motorcycle ride at the mall. Sorry, kind of blurry I guess. He didn't want to get off!

We had a fun day away from home and it was too bad Daddy couldn't be there with us!