Day 5: Cody, Wyoming

Our next officially planned stop was at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, in Cody, Wyoming.

The Center is actual five museums in one: 
--The Buffalo Bill Museum
This museum focused on the fascinating life of this man and his famous Wild West shows. This museum included silent b & w film footage of the show!!!  Esp. awesome because we read together as a family a riveting biography of Buffalo Bill and all the fascinating U.S. history wrapped up in his own. The book is The Boy Who Became Buffalo Bill: Growing Up Bill Cody in Bleeding Kansas. I highly recommend, esp. for a family read-aloud!

--The Draper Natural History Museum
Focused on the Yellowstone park area, this was well done--the museum broken up into different levels representing different ecosystems. 

--The Whitney Western Art Museum
There was a special exhibit we really enjoyed on the works of Albert Bierstadt, and lots of paintings by famous painters: 

--The Plains Indian Museum
All the museums were very well done, but this one had a very particular mood to it--solemn and almost haunted. My photos don't capture the mood at all, which was probably best conveyed through the large displays, reconstructed buildings, lighting and sound effects/music. 

The handcrafts astound me.

--The Cody Firearms Museum
There was a special exhibit on firearms on loan from the Smithsonian. I never got to even go into this museum, although two of my kids opted for this one over the Whitney. There was just too much to see, we let everyone break up and choose what interested them the most.

Originally we had planned to spend the morning at the Buffalo Bill Center--but it was so awesome we closed it down, and ending up staying a second night in Cody.  Honestly, we could have spent two full days there--there was that much to see and take in.  I highly recommend this museum!

That night we splurged on dinner in a restaurant in Cody (where we will forever remember the huge and perfectly cooked baked potatoes) and then headed to the local rodeo. 

This too, was all the more perfect because of the book series we are currently reading as a family: the "Little Britches" books, by Ralph Moody. The rodeo figures prominently in young Ralph's life, and so it was great to give the kids a taste of it.

The funniest part of the rodeo--when they invited all the kids in the stands down into the arena for a contest of their own. There were two calves set loose in the arena, each with a prize tied to its tail. At the starter pistol they let loose all the kids to see who could run down a calf and win the prize. 

I was laughing so hard--even while worrying for the safety of those calves, watching the frenzied mob bearing down on them!  But all ended well, and while Happy and Smiley (our two who at the time were still 12 or under and so could participate) didn't win a prize, they sure made a memory!