As four-year-old Ian Johnson sat on a wooden bench in a trolley on Saturday, he could hardly contain his excitement.

Johnson, armed with a map of the “hot spots” on Central Michigan University’s third annual Culture Crawl and a bag of potato chips he’d grabbed along the way, was every bit the eager tourist.

“He’s always afraid he’s going to miss something, so he has to move so fast,” said his mom, Darleen Basner. “We took him to a museum in Lansing and had to go through it eight times to see everything.”

Saturday’s Culture Crawl, organized by students in CMU’s Museum Studies Program, offered tourists an opportunity to see several of Mount Pleasant’s historic offerings in one afternoon.

Isabella County Transportation Commission trolleys carried visitors along two routes. One went downtown, stopping at Art Reach, 111 E. Broadway St., and the Ziibiwing Center, 6650 E. Broadway St. Another traveled on-campus, between locations such as the Clarke Historical Library and the University Art Gallery.

Basner said she enjoyed looking at an exhibit of quilt-style creations at Art Reach that replicated scenes of Italy.

“We go to museums and art shows all over the place,” she said.

Though the family lives in Coleman, Basner and her husband William Johnson regularly bring Ian into Mount Pleasant to visit parks and other community-oriented places. William Johnson is curator of the Ziibiwing Center, and has shared his love for history and learning with Ian almost since birth.

“Too many kids are watching too much TV and drinking too much soda these days,” he said.

As Ian Johnson jumped off the bus at Rowe Hall’s Museum of Cultural and Natural History, his attention immediately fixed on a collection of life-size grizzly bears in the hallway.

“He died a long time ago,” Ian said, as he stopped to touch the fur of one bear and examined its long claws.

A couple rooms over, a showcase of more animal replicas offered a real-life glimpse into nature. Though his mother reminded him the animals were not real, he knew better.

“You have to use your imagination,” Ian Johnson said excitedly, charging forward to the next exhibit.”

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E-mail the author: Heidi Fenton