When heading down to Portland on the train, I saw quite a bit of promotion around the King Tut exhibit at the Pacific Science Center.

Apparently, this is also the last time these pieces will be in the U.S, and I just don’t see my family heading to Egypt any time soon – so I figured we had better make the trip.  Not to mention, Stella learned about King Tut back in the spring (probably right around the time the exhibit started) and Michael is all in to history stuff.

I filled my “big mama” purse with the basic essentials (snacks, change of clothes, money and phone), got husband and child into the car in one piece and in a moment of rare clarity threw in the stroller (just for luck).

There was a bit of a line to buy tickets, but it moved quick.  When we purchased the tickets we were told we would be able to go to the King Tut exhibit at 2:30 (1 hour wait) – but the Pacific Science Center is huge and child friendly, so killing an hour was no biggie.

After an hour of play, we headed to the main event.

So….they are super serious about this exhibit.  There was staff everywhere, there were rules and we were ushered into a room where we were giving a rundown of the rules again, before we were forced to watch a movie introducing  the exhibit (fortunately and ironically the video was narrated by Harrison Ford).  Note – one of the rules was “no food”.

Well, Stella was super excited to go see King Tut, but once we entered the exhibit, I could tell this was not what she was expecting.  The pieces were beautiful, but all behind glass – so nothing to touch.  The rooms were also very dark, crowded and warm – not ideal for a 4 year old.

Enter the stroller – a momentary godsend.  But no more than two minutes into the exhibit did Stella start telling me she was hungry.  Normally, I wouldn’t worry too much about rules and would whip out a snack.  But the staff was super serious and after watching many kids getting told to settle down and go to their parents, I didn’t want to risk it (or get kicked out).

The pieces were amazing, and there was a good mixture of items that belonged to King Tut, as well as other Pharaohs. The last portion of the exhibit was solely focused on King Tut’s tomb.  By the antechamber, Stella was bored, hungry and tired (=whiny),  and by the burial room, I was carrying a sleeping kid.

Of course, the only way out of the exhibit was through the gift shop, but with Stella passed out, we were able to escape without having to say “no” a million times.

The exhibit was beautiful, and really made me wish I could just hop on a plane to Egypt and see the pyramids.  While it was pricey, I do think it was worth the money.  The one thing I did learn, Stella is not really a museum kind of gal, well at least not now – she is more of the hands-on, running around type.