Our first stop was the Hendersonville Lapidary and Mineral Museum. This little gem was very educational. We had a docent led tour and they split our group into ten people each.
We learned about minerals and gems in general. Then we learned about minerals and gems specific to North Carolina.
We learned what lapidary meant and saw many examples. Lapidary is what someone does with rocks and minerals. For example, making the stone into jewelry or art.
We learned the story behind the Hendersonville Meteorite rock and got to see it.
We learned about geodes and how they were formed. We even got to see the docent crack open a geode.
We learned about fossils and saw many different types.
This was a great tour and piqued our interest even more into the subject of minerals and gems.
After the museum tour, we grabbed lunch at Mike's on Main. It's a nice old fashion soda fountain with reasonably priced lunch options.
Then we visited the Mast General Store. It is always fun to walk through and look at all the different things inside. Of course, the barrels of candy attracts the kiddos.
Finally, we made our way to TEAM ECCO Aquarium. We love looking at salt-water aquarium fish. Their displays are nice and have plenty of information about the fish in the tanks.
The kids loved the reptiles and amphibians in the aquarium, as well.
We got to see the shark and ray feeding. The lady doing the feeding provided plenty of background information about the sharks and ray, as she feed them. The kids were entertained greatly by Charlotte the Ray. She is quite the character!
This was a fun and informative day trip!
