Mayborn Museum (Waco, TX) -- October 2018

Going to a science museum is always a good bet, and when searching for items outside of the Austin area, this seemed like a good bet to try.  Located on the campus of Baylor University, it was real easy to get to once you exited Interstate 35.  We got there in the morning so we could hit it right as it opened.  Once inside, the directions to the exhibits we were given we a bit off.  The wing we were sent to had a few hands-on things, but it was designed as a daycare center to keep kids occupied as opposed to something which promoted actual learning.  A quick search located the actual real museum at the real of the building, which was thankfully devoid of the screaming kids in the section of the building we'd just come from.

There were a number of interesting fossils presented here, all of which had been located in the region.  Most of these were critters which inhabited the area were from the last glacial period, thus no dinosaurs.  There were a couple displays of remains of marine reptiles from an earlier period when Texas was covered by shallow seas.  Another section had a representation of the limestone caves which are so common in the Central Texas region.  There was some actual cave bits which had been transplanted to here.  While they wouldn't grow any more, you had a good idea of what the real living ones were like.

The crown jewel of the displays was the partially excavated mammoth skeleton, which had only been discovered fairly recently.  Nearby was a life-sized painting of the creature so you could stand next to it, thus getting a sense of the scale of this critter.

In the rear of the building were a few buildings from the pioneering days to make up a historical village.  Most of these you could go inside and look at the various artifacts of the time period.  The school house had a date of 1897 written on the chalk board to give you an idea of when that time period was.  Most of the structures now had extensions to the existing porches to make them handicap accessible, but you still got the idea of what these buildings looked like when they were actually used.  This museum was a good place to spend a couple hours on a weekend afternoon.