United States: District of Columbia: Washington, D.C.: The Mall: Smithsonian Institution: National Air and Space Museum

russellviii
Layton

Worth visiting!

A Fabulous Museum

I’ve been in this museum several times. It is my all-time favorite.

On my most recent trip to DC with Mrs. viii I suggested that we stop in and have a look around. Mrs. viii is a self-proclaimed non-museum person. She did however say that she wouldn’t mind checking out a few of the Smithsonian museums just to be able to say we had been there. I told her that I had already been here before, so I’d be willing to leave whenever she would like.

Normally I consider it a great success to get her to stay in a museum for 15-20 minutes. Well, after a several hours in the museum we found ourselves listening the announcement saying that the museum would be closing in a few minutes and asking us to head for the exits. This never happens in a museum with Mrs. viii.

She enjoyed looking at the Wright Brothers display, the World War II aviation and aircraft carrier exhibits, space exploration exhibits, the UAV’s, the rockets, you name it and she liked it. This was a great museum experience for us to share.

I like the whole museum, but I was forced to choose, I would say that my personal favorite section is the space exploration section.

I’ll definitely be back to this museum someday.

Comments:

Carm
Seattle

Cool

So did you underestimate the museum? OR, did you underestimate Mrs. viii??

russellviii
Layton

A little of both perhaps

I probably underestimated Mrs. viii more. It’s just that 26 years of history has demonstrated a profound lack of interest in museums in general.

While in DC we started our museum spree with the Museum of Natural History. I asked her if she was really sure that she wanted to go in. When we got inside and saw the stuffed elephant in the atrium she was very impressed. We wandered around through the mammal section. We were in there for maybe an hour. Then she said that she had had enough. She said that she thought it was interesting. I was very proud of her.

We hit the Smithsonian Castle next. Neither one of us were very taken by it, so we stayed only for a few minutes. Then it was time for the Air and Space Museum. I can’t explain it, but she found it all very interesting.

I’m hoping that this trip has helped to break her of her museumophobia.

Carm
Seattle

I think...

there is something different about Air and Space museums that set them aside from the regular “museum” experience.

I have been to the Air and Space Museum in DC and we also have an awesome Museum of Flight here in Seattle thanks to Boeing.

If I were to put myself in Mrs. viii’s shoes I think I would say there is a world of difference between a room full of stuffy artifacts and documents (what we usually think of as the museum experience) and a room full of airplanes and spacecraft.

At our Museum of Flight, for example, you can board the original Air Force One, tour a Concorde and see a Mars Viking lander. None of that makes me think I’m in “a museum.”

Perhaps you were just taking her to the wrong museums. :)

russellviii
Layton

Wrong museums...perhaps

We also went to the Museum of Flight near Seattle about three years ago. She liked that one too.

I think that maybe at one time in her life she had been to mostly boring museums and has found it hard to step outside of her self-imposed prison of not liking museums.

While we were in DC there were very few museums there that she didn’t actually like. I’ll have to drag her along to a few more and see what she says about them. Then I’ll have to have a subtle discussion with her about changing her overall opinion about museums.

sugarbabybaby
Toronto

I think it is great that Mrs. viii is expanding her mind! I find that some things that used to excite me now bore me and vice versa. Sometimes if we reopen our eyes we see things differently!


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