Note: Settle into your room, meet our welcoming staff and enjoy a relaxing evening program with a special animal guest.

Afternoon: Check-in at the Point Plaza Suites and Conference Center (after 3:00 pm). Once you are settled, meet our friendly representatives from the Museum who will take your photo for your identification badge.

Dinner: Dinner is served at the hotel from 6:00 to 7:00 pm. Menus are contracted for the program and are designed to offer balanced, healthy and kid-friendly meals for the participants.

Evening: Enjoy a short orientation where you will get to know your fellow travelers, be heartily welcomed by our staff and meet a special guest. An introduction to the Virginia Living Museum will engage your sense of wonder at what is to come!

Lodging: Point Plaza Suites at City Center

Meals Included: Dinner

Welcome to the Museum! Explore Virginia's habitats (past and present), discover the world of the pond, and learn about and meet, fascinating amphibians and reptiles. Meet a surprise guest after dinner!

Note: This day's activities will include hands-on exploration of the pond using nets and buckets, engaging classroom activities, as well as walks on our outdoor boardwalk and through our delightful exhibits.

Breakfast: Breakfast at hotel.

Morning: Lecture: Learning about Animal Adaptations. Participants will tour the Museum's outdoor exhibits and learn about native wildlife. Hands-On Experience: Participants will explore (with nets, buckets and microscopes) the secret life of the museum's pond and see in an up close and personal way who lives there!

Lunch: Lunch at the Museum.

Afternoon: Hands-On Experience: Amphibians and Reptiles. Learn how to tell these animals apart, discover special characteristics that make a lizard unique, try your hand at identifying the calls of frogs and toads, along with much, much more! Lecture: Animal Adaptations. With Museum staff, explore the indoor exhibits, and learn about unique adaptations of the inhabitants. Hands-On Experience: Ancient Life of Virginia. Learn about the geology of ancient Virginia while you touch rocks and fossils that are millions of years old! Meet some “living fossils” while engaging in an interactive classroom presentation. Participants will be returned to their hotel via the Museum shuttle.

Dinner: Dinner is served at 6:00 at the hotel.

Evening: CLASS: Museum staff will present an engaging live animal program featuring special birds, reptiles, mammals, or another group of fascinating creatures.

Lodging: Point Plaza Suites at City Center

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Search for and collect 3 to 5 million year old fossils and discover the world of the Chesapeake Bay. Meet a surprise guest after dinner.

Note: This morning's trip will require walking on uneven terrain in search of fossil materials, stooping to collect and getting on and off buses multiple times.

Breakfast: Breakfast at hotel.

Morning: FIELD TRIP: Participants will be collected at their hotel and travel to a site where we will search for and collect fossils that are 3 to 5 million years old.

Lunch: Lunch will be at the Museum.

Afternoon: HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE: Upon return to the Virginia Living Museum, the focus will shift to the Chesapeake Bay. With beakers of water, museum specimens, and live animals, participants will study the invertebrates of the Bay, learning how to tell them apart and why they are unique!

Dinner: Dinner at 6:00 at the hotel.

Evening: CLASS: Museum staff will present an engaging live animal program featuring special birds, reptiles, mammals, or another group of fascinating creatures.

Lodging: Point Plaza Suites at City Center

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Explore a salt marsh and a brackish river that flows to the Chesapeake Bay. Collect and release live animals! Your afternoon is free for exploration.

Note: We will walk into the muddy salt marsh to explore this habitat. We will use seine nets and buckets to collect live animals from the river.

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel.

Morning: Field Trip: Habitats of the Chesapeake Bay. Participants will be collected at their hotel and travel to the salt marsh. Immersion in this habitat will allow for a deeper understanding of this important ecosystem. Following this adventure, participants will next venture into the brackish York River where simple tools will allow for the collection of fascinating animals. This hands-on activity will involve seine nets, buckets and lots of fun!

Lunch: Picnic Lunch

Afternoon: The afternoon has been set aside for self-exploration. Participants will be returned to their hotel after lunch and will have a free afternoon.

Dinner: Dinner is available at 6:00 at the hotel if you choose.

Evening: On your own.

Lodging: Point Plaza Suites at City Center

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Visit the Abbitt Planetarium and learn about our solar system, delve into the fascinating world of birds, discover the differences between rocks and minerals, meet a surprise guest after dinner!

Note: This morning we will walk to the Abbitt Planetarium for a lecture from a staff Astronomer. We will return to the classroom for hands-on lectures, and allow for participants to have free time to explore the Museum exhibits on their own.

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel.

Morning: Participants will be collected at their hotel and shuttled to the Museum. Lecture: Virginia's Skies. We’ll voyage into outer space in the Museum’s Abbitt Planetarium. Participants will enjoy a live program from staff astronomers, who will instruct about constellations and the night sky. Hands-On Experience: Birds, birds, birds! Participants will return to our lab classroom where a discussion about birds will begin. Feathers, wings, skeletons and bird calls will all be part of the hands-on fun as participants gain knowledge of ornithology while meeting some live birds.

Lunch: Lunch at the Museum

Afternoon: Free Time: Participants will be given time to explore the Museum. Hands-On Experience: Mineral Magic. Learn what it’s like to be a mineralogist with this engaging hands-on program. Discover how to tell a rock from a mineral, learn how mineralogists test minerals for hardness, luster, streak, and other special properties. Meet a live animal that depends on minerals for survival!

Dinner: Dinner is at 6:00 at the hotel.

Evening: CLASS: Museum staff will present an engaging live animal program featuring special birds, reptiles, mammals, or another group of fascinating creatures.

Lodging: Point Plaza Suites at City Center

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Discover the secret life of plants, celebrate your week with heartfelt farewell ceremony.

Note: Day 6: Plant Investigations and Farewell Ceremony Breakfast: At the hotel Morning: Participants will be collected and shuttled to the Museum for a final morning of fun and excitement. CLASS: Plants will be the focus today. Through interactive activities, participants will learn about the secret ways plants have to survive. This will be followed with a simple, yet heartfelt farewell ceremony. Participants will be shuttled to their hotel for check-out and departure.

Breakfast: Breakfast at the hotel.

Morning: Participants will be collected and shuttled to the Museum for a final morning of fun and excitement. CLASS: The Secret Life of Plants. Plants will be the focus today. Through the use of live plants, microscopes and interactive activities, participants will learn the variety of ways plants have to survive. This will be followed with a simple, yet heartfelt farewell ceremony.

Lunch: Lunch at the Museum

Afternoon: After lunch, we will have a special farewell ceremony. Participants will be shuttled back to the hotel for a late check-out.

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch