Royal Ontario Museum

I knew that this week would be fairly anti-climactic as far as reading weeks go so I planned to meet up with my friend Grace on Wednesday to go in to Toronto to the Royal Ontario Museum, or the ROM as its more commonly known.
We met at Yorkdale Shopping Centre and took the subway to the "Museum" stop. Grace was looking forward to seeing the mummy (which we never actually did locate) so I took her picture with this pillar in the subway station :)

The side entrance to the ROM. Much more beautiful (IMO) than the very modern current main entrance.

The ROM is HUGE with artefacts from all over the world. We didn't really have a plan, just wandered around getting acquainted. I bought an annual pass so I'll definitely be going back. When I do I'll make a point of taking some of the guided tours. For now we just focused on seeing what was there and spending the day together. Because of this I really, really limited myself on pictures. Knowing I'll be going back meant I didn't take as many as I usually would. The picture above was in the Asia exhibit. They are little houses and feeding dishes for crickets!!! So cute!

The dinosaur exhibit is pretty impressive too. Grace and I found it a bit odd that they had some skeletons that were entirely replicates (no real bones at all). Especially for some of the other prehistoric animals (that I didn't take pictures of...cause they were fake anyways!)

It's become a bit of running joke that I've been in Ontario for over six months and still haven't seen a cardinal. They're around. I know they are because other people see them. Just not me. Of course I don't really spend that much time outside or looking outside so it shouldn't be that weird. Anyways, I was excited to see one in the museum :P Can you spot it?

Some of the butterflies were GORGEOUS. I loved this iridescent blue one.

One of the nice things about the ROM is simply the architecture. Exposed brick walls, wide marble (looking?) staircases and stained glass, as featured in this window although you can't see it because there's too much sunlight coming in.

This tile mosaic is in the entrance to the European Galleries. Probably my favourite part of the museum, at least this time, because it contained references to the medieval stuff I've been studying in school.

Loved this cabinet!

This display made me laugh. Picture this: you're walking through an exhibit of the evolution of armour, come around a corner and you see THIS. They had a whole write up of how modern hockey gear is modeled after metal armour! Very fun.

Grace and I spent a few hours enjoying the exhibits and then caught the subway back to Yorkdale. There we went for an early supper at the Rainforest Cafe and then shopped (although neither of us bought a single thing) for awhile before changing and heading to church. We have a midweek service and the church is a little over halfway between my house and Toronto so it's a good day to go since I'm driving anyways.

It was a fun day and it broke the week up really well. I look forward to going back soon!