Raleigh Museum of Natural Sciences

On Father's Day we took Javon to the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. It was our first trip to Raleigh and I have to say, I was really impressed. First of all, I-40 has the most beautiful rest stops ever. They were equipped with very clean bathrooms, travel information centers, picnic benches, vending machines, and beautiful flower beds. The first one we stopped at was so gorgeous, that I had to take a picture of my mom and Javon stopping to admire the flowers.

I also managed to take a mug shot photo of my step dad, Joe:

And I even got one with Russell doing a great police officer impersonation (though he didn't know it at the time hehe):

The museum was amazing... and how lucky are we? They had an exhibit on CHOCOLATE. While we were there, we bought a bar of authentic dark chocolate laced (yes, "laced") with pieces of some type of chili pepper. It was pretty spicy, but the effect of the spiciness combined with the semi-bitter / semi-sweetness of the chocolate was really interesting. We also bought a bar of dark chocolate with organic banana bits in it. I'm a total banana-head, I loooove bananas, so obviously this was a real treat for me.

I think Javon's favorite part was the massive amount of dinosaur skeletons. He mentioned *maybe* wanting to be a paleontologist when he grows up. I was able to get a few good shots of him with us around the dinosaur exhibits:

I got to hang out with natives made of plastic... that's always a plus, right?

It was a pretty relaxing drive home. Russell crashed (as you can see in the background of the picture below) and Javon stole my Gucci knock-off sunglasses so he could strike a pose.

I'm really glad we got to make the trip. We're dreading the day when Javon has to go back down to Florida, so it's been fun soaking up every free minute we have with him.