THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 28, 1994 TAG: 9412280471
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Maria Smith had had enough. The Christmas presents were unwrapped. The toys had become boring. And her kids were itching for something to do.
``They were getting really restless,'' Smith said of her daughters, Lauren, Lindsey and Lisa. ``They were driving me crazy.''
So Smith gave them a choice: the movies or the Children's Museum of Virginia in Portsmouth. They - and several hundred other families - opted for the museum.
On Tuesday, lines into the museum snaked around the building's corner and down the sidewalk. Tuesday's attendance of 2,000, museum curator Tony Earles said, was a record. But the wait to get in averaged only 20 minutes or so.
``We're having a great day,'' Earles said. ``With schools being out, it's added a nice flavor of people.''
For Maria Smith, the $2.5 million hands-on museum, which opened Dec. 10, was the perfect solution for restless kids.
``I think it's fantastic,'' said Smith, who recently moved to Chesapeake from Westchester County, N.Y.
Her 9-year-old daughter, Lauren, said she was getting bored watching television. But the museum? ``I like it,'' Lauren said. ``They ask you to challenge yourself how to do things.''
Throughout the day, the museum was anything but quiet. Kids ran all over the giant playground, tugging on parents' arms and testing their skills on the exhibits.
At the Portsmouth City Hall display, Jackie West rested on a bench while her two children skipped in and out of the makeshift bank.
``I think it's wonderful for them,'' said West, a schoolteacher visiting from Winston-Salem, N.C. ``It's a good exhibit. They're so overwhelmed with all of it, they flip.''
West kept looking over her shoulder as she spoke, checking on David, 4, and Ashley, 2. ``I'm tired,'' she said. ``I wish I could bottle their energy.''
That energy was shared by children and adults.
``We came in, they made us climb across the walls, we played the drums . . from Charleston, S.C.
His daughter, Dyanna, 9, took a break from blowing bubbles to join her dad.
``It's cool,'' Dyanna said, her hands dripping with soap from the bubble-maker. ``I don't know my favorite (exhibit) yet. I think I like the bubbles.''
Meta Wesley, who drove from Newport News to visit the museum, said she and her children stood in line for 20 minutes to get in, but it was worth the wait.
``It was very good,'' said Wesley, who brought her daughter, Elayne, 9, and son, George, 8. ``They were getting restless, and I've been running around trying to find something to do.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by Bill Tiernan, Staff
Most visitors to the Children's Museum of Virginia waited 20 minutes
to get insdie on Tuesday. At left, Danielle Dickhoff of Yorktown and
April Eilers of Newport News, botth 9, scan a brochure to pass the
time.
KEYWORDS: CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF VIRGINIA PORTSMOUTH by CNB