I had intended for Springfield to be our first foray back into civilization and take in a city, albeit a small one. 

I had read about an incredible museum and aquarium here that we all would love. It turns out that the Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium is all apart of Bass Pro Shops headquarters, a sort of healthier Hershey World. This massive compound housed a natural history museum and an aquarium that alone would rival any in the country. Fish are so enormous when you aren’t fishing. The volume of exotic taxidermied animals is unrivaled in my life. We spent hours wondering the halls here and still never experienced everything. At lunch we ate alongside a giant aquarium tank. I saw other poor families being dragged through the fisherman’s hall of fame, the hunting half of fame, and the fly fishing history museum. All of this set within a giant Bass Pro Shop. 

When I was younger, I got the unique opportunity to visit Monaco when I was backpacking across Europe. We visited one of the oldest aquariums in the world, the aquarium started as Prince Albert’s personal collection, a man so wealthy, he had time to travel the world and pay teams to collect some of the most unique specimens ever discovered and certainly displayed. It was as much of a rich man’s hobby as it was a chance to show off his collection. Later that trip, we visited the first ever Zoo in Vienna, another royals collection. I suppose, as long as there are exhorbabently rich people, some will enjoy showing off their collections. I’ll let you be the judge as to how much these benefit or harm conservation efforts. 

This was the wildly successful Johnny Morris’ chance to show off his wildly impressive collection and we were all for it. What a great day, all around. It’ll be a good reminder of what fun was before we enter Kansas tomorrow for a few days. Adios Ozarks, see you again soon.