Check out Spiders Alive! A new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History

PHOTO SOURCE: American Museum of Natural History

One of my all time favorite places to go is the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. My mom took me there a few times when I was a young girl. The first time I visited the museum I fell in love with it. I truly enjoy exploring every corner of the museum. I’m one of those people who enjoy reading about each and every thing that I see – much to the dismay of my kids. They just like to look and move on to the next thing. Not me. I like to learn about what I am looking at.

My family and I haven’t been to the museum in six years. We kept meaning to go back but something always came up. This summer we had it planned that we were going to visit it no matter what.

There is a new exhibit at the museum right now called Spiders Alive! The exhibit will be at the museum until November 29, 2015.

OK… I know what you are saying. Who in their right mind would want to go and see real live spiders on display. Most people are not overly keen on the eight legged creatures. Trust me, spiders are not my most favorite creature either. In fact, my mom died from complications to the venom from a Brown Recluse Spider bite.

I don’t freak out when I see spiders, but I am weary of them, especially because some can be deadly. None the less I was curious about them.

My husband, son and I went to the museum to check out the exhibit, as well as the other exhibits at the museum. Our daughter was supposed to go with us but she had to work and couldn’t change her schedule.

Inside the Spiders Alive! exhibit you’ll find real live spiders from around the world – some of them are HUGE too. It was kind of creepy to see these spiders up close.

One of the spiders at the exhibit is a Mediterranean Brown Recluse Spider. I was not too happy to see that one, but at least there was no way it could hurt anymore.

Did I mention the spiders in this exhibit are ALIVE (thus the reason why it’s called Spiders Alive!).

My apologies for the photos not being that great. You cannot use flash photography in the exhibit and I don’t have a macro lens on my camera.

Check out these other creepy crawlies currently on display at the Spiders Alive! exhibit.

These are things nightmares are made of. Ha Ha.

There were also photos on the wall of other spiders from around the world (very interesting and unique ones) as well as other displays like a spider web.

As creepy as it was the exhibit is very educational and gave us a better understanding, and dare I say, appreciation for spiders. There was even a hands on demonstration where the educator used a real, live spider.

The spider the demonstrator was using as also displayed on the screen behind her head so that people in the back could see just as well as those upfront.

The Spiders Alive! exhibit is an extra fee (it’s not part of the general admission) however if you are interested in spiders, or even a wee bit curious, it would be worth the visit.

There are other special exhibits and films currently going on at the museum too, as well as their permanent displays. You might want to check out Life at the Limits, Nature’s Fury and Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean.

Tickets for the museum can be purchased at the museum or you can order them online and pick them up at the Will Call window. PLEASE NOTE the line for the Will Call window is very long. It took 47 minutes online to pick up our tickets. When we left for the day the link for the Will Call window was still very long. Please keep that in mind so you can plan your day accordingly. We were pressed for time so we had to give up one of the exhibits we wanted to see due to the time spent online.

General admission has a suggested price which allows you entry into all 45 halls and the Rose Center for Earth and Space. To gain entry into the special exhibits you need to purchase different tickets. I would personally recommend the Super Saver option so you can see all the exhibits and films. It’s well worth it.

If you have never been to the American Museum of Natural History and are planning a trip to New York City, or live near the city and are looking for a “day trip” activity, I would highly recommend visiting the museum and planetarium. It’s filled with so many amazing things.

The planetarium is AWESOME! Currently the show at the planetarium is about Dark Matter. I personally found it incredibly fascinating, but my husband and son said it was a bit too “deep” and hard to understand. I feel it might be too complicated for little ones to understand.

There are plenty of tours you could take in the museum. There is even an app that can help make your visit more educational called Explorer. It’s free to download from iTunes and Google Play.

If you are planning a visit I would suggest you allow yourself several hours. There are so many places to explore in the museum. There are also places to eat, shop and plenty of restrooms to make your visit comfortable and more enjoyable.

I don’t want to give away too much from the museum, but here are some of my photos from our visit. I will forewarn you that my favorite exhibits are the animals and dinosaurs, so most of my photos are of them.

Flash photography is not allowed for several of the exhibits. Be sure to read signs to make sure flash photography is allowed. When it doubt you can always ask one of the museum representatives.

I did use flash on the Whale vs. Giant Squid display because there was no way I could get a photo otherwise (it’s very dark).

I think I too about 200 pictures that day, if not more. I really love the museum. It’s like every time I go we stumble across something we didn’t see before.

Young and old alike can delight in all the wonderful things that can be found within the walls of the museum. The museum is also located across from Central Park so you could take a leisurely stroll there after your museum visit.

For more information please visit www.AMNH.org. You can also find the museum across all the social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram…). All of the links are found at the bottom of their website.

Have you ever been to the American Museum of Natural History? Do you have a favorite display or exhibit? What do you think about Spiders Alive! Feel free to comment and share your thoughts. I always love to hear from my readers.

Kimberly

*We received free passes in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.

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