Pittsburgh, part 3: Adventures with Clifford and Mr. Rogers

Just like "Emily Elizabeth", Clifford's human, C could slide down Clifford's tail!

True to scale, C could climb into Clifford's doggy bowl and play with his treats. The learning part of this exhibit was a hand-cranked conveyer belt that loaded the doggy treats into the dish.

F picked up C so she could see Clifford up close. My camera missed the moment when she hugged him. In addition, there was a section where C could climb through a tunnel to Cleo's yard, play with "sand" shapes with T-bone, pretend to be a mail carrier, wear a costume and pretend to be one of the dog characters. The display also included several buildings that are shown on Birdwell Island, including Clifford's doghouse, where kids could draw pictures, a snack-shack from the boardwalk, the Bleakman's house, and the schoolhouse, where little ones could learn all about Norman Bridwell, Clifford's author. C thought the snack-shack was pretty neat. We spent a good half hour in it, serving up plastic snacks. Mmm...tasty!



Clifford is a temporary exhibit, on tour throughout the United States. The museum has several permanent exhibits; however, most of them are intended for exploration by children a bit older than C. One exhibit that she was ready for though, is the rather large area devoted to Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. Considering Fred Rogers was from Pittsburgh, that seems appropriate. I was taken right back to my childhood seeing Trolley, Henrietta Pussycat, X the owl, Daniel Tiger, King Friday and Queen Sara, all on display (original puppets, in glass cases: these, the kids couldn't play with). There was a mock up of Mr. Rogers' living room, and C "played" on the player piano. She made shapes with the push-pegboard in Lady Elaine's Museum-go-round and visited with some puppets in X's tree and a mock-up-castle. There were so many things--we couldn't see or do all of them. C wasn't ready for some of the activities, and we had to cut our time there short, since we had plans with F's friend from college that night.

Getting on the trolley to go to Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. Oooh...now I need to find Mr. Rogers on PBS. It was truly a blessing to go down this memory lane with my baby girl.