This Saturday, we visited the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Mass with some of our class to discover more about the whaling culture and the history behind what Moby Dick is all about.  When first thinking about waking up on a Saturday morning and taking an hour long drive to a museum that I had no background on, my initial thoughts weren’t all the positive.  But once we began to get closer to the museum and I saw the true history of the surrounding area, including the cobblestone roads we were driving on, I knew that there was more here than I could have ever imagined.  When entering the museum, I was met with my first question I had going in, which was if they were going to have a whale skeleton.  Alas, right when we walked through the front doors and even into the first exhibit room, my hopes transpired into this gigantic bone structure that was displayed before me.  Just to witness the true size of these creatures even without all the blubber and fat was eye-opening to me.  There were also taxidermy sea mammals on the second floor balcony that were interesting to look at as well.

One thing that really helped the overall visit to the museum was our enthusiastic tour guide Larry!  Right off the bat you could easily tell he had so much passion for what he was showing us and New Bedford whaling as a whole.  A memorable moment was when we visited the second floor and Larry created an image out the window of what the harbor of New Bedford used to look like when it was one of the richest cities in the United States.  I could really visualize all the hustle and bustle that took place on those docks over a century ago.

Another thing that I really enjoyed was the interactive stations that they had placed throughout the museum to get a more in depth view of what we were learning.  Whether it was a short clip about ocean life and creatures or picking up a telephone to hear different types of whale noises, this made the visit much more entertaining when we were able to walk around for about a half hour at the very end.

P.S. – The lunch was really great too!