Down On The Farm

"You can have a lot of fun
in a New York minute,
but theres some things you can't do
inside those city limits.
There ain't no closing time.
There ain't no cover charge.
Just country boys and girls
gettin down on the farm."
- Tim McGraw







Today's outing led us to the Helsinki Children's Museum. Located 12 km north of the city, this museum resides in a building built in 1790. Once used as a dairy house and workshop during the 19th century, then as a manure store and sauna in the 20th century, the Children's Museum was opened in 1992.






Set up with 3 exhibit rooms and a 4th dedicated to reading, arts & crafts, and building blocks, the museum creates a nature trip into the environments where urban animals live. Beginning in the River Vantaa and Gulf of Finland, children explore the waters depth. The ceiling is decorated as the water's surface. Along the walls you can see large fish and other marine life in action.






The second room is decorated with a look out tower equipped with cardboard binoculars. Within the trees, birds of the city are perched. Inside the tower, children can push buttons that play recorded sounds of each native bird.






The final room is a mid-19th century Helsinki house. Here you can milk Rosita the cow, ride in a horse drawn carriage, produce a puppet show, or hop on board a merry-go-round. After an hour of running through the museum, coloring, climbing the look out tower, riding the merry-go-round, and all the other activities provided...we headed outside for some spring-like weather. Picnic lunches were enjoyed on the steps of the main museum then the kids ran though the yard and around the gazebo. With horses grazing in the distance, a tractor hauling bailed hay, and cottages on the horizon, city life was forgotten.