Where else but in California’s BBQ Capital would you find a barbecue exhibit inside a children’s museum?
Indeed, that’s exactly what you’ll find at the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum, where interactive educational fun meets local flavor, particularly in the museum’s Bunkhouse and BBQ Hall of Fame exhibits.
In the words of the Discovery Museum, “The Rancho Pasquini barn and bunkhouse is home to the R.H. Tesene BBQ Hall of Fame, with displays of dozens of family brands and the history of Santa Maria-style barbecue. Kids can put on a pair of cowboy boots and a hat and wander through our working barn filled with saddle parts, bits, belt buckles and ranching tools. Cowboys and cowgirls can take a ‘ride’ on a rocking horse and a real John Deere tractor, and then sit around the campfire to brew some coffee or cook up stone soup at the chuck wagon. After a long day on the range, settle into the bunkhouse for a game of checkers.”
More local flavor can be enjoyed in the Planting Station exhibit: “The Santa Maria Valley is famous for its fertile soil, and Plantel Nurseries keeps the museum stocked with valley vegetable transplants through all the planting seasons. Broccoli, cauliflower, red lettuce, and celery are just a few of the cash crops nourishing our valley economy and the museum planting station. So grab some dirt and plant, water, and take home a seedling to start your own backyard garden.”
Other exhibits include Tar Pits, Pirate Ship, Mission to Mars and much more, all with an entertainingly educational twist.
And, of course, after working up an appetite at the Discovery Museum, you might as well take the entire family out for a meal at one of our local barbecue restaurants!
