What do you think about natural history museums?

[BitBuster]

I've never been a fan. If I have to go to a museum, I'd much prefer to go to an art museum. The more "modern," the better (+1 for Jackson Pollock). I actually quite like modern art museums...but on the whole, I'd rather take a walk in the woods than go to a museum.

[PB_guy]

Historical museums are the best! I loved visiting them on our trip across Canada. There was a group of 5 grain elevators in Inglis, Manitoba that had a moisture determination kit from the 1930's and an original, (non-working) steam engine. There was a steam driven log/craft mill in Nova Scotia (partly demoed with electric) that had some of the original things made in the mill. The fort at Louisberg at Cape Breton was fantastic. Local museums in just about every little place we went were always worth while looking through. Sometimes the best part was the stories that you got from the locals who manned the museums.

Ian

[BitBuster]

Oh, stories from locals are definitely always fun (especially in small towns). I think I might even enjoy a museum dedicated to mills, logging, mining, etc. It's the purely biological stuff that tends to bore me (you know, animals and all).

Re: your trip across Canada; how long did that take? I have to envy you; I've only been to a few Canadian provinces, and they weren't enough.

[geodave]

Museums are a weird thing. I've been to a kite museum and a carousel museum. I guess it depends on what you like.

Of course, art museums are more likely to have pictures of unclothed people, which is a draw for many. (It was quite a thing when our fifth-grade class went to an art museum and a giant nude was on display right in the entrance, and our teacher patently ignored it.)

I remember going to some museum in Chicago which had displays about coal mining. I was so bored.

[BitBuster]

I'm generally not fond of art that shows people, clothed or not. Portraits of royalty bore me the most. Gimmie abstraction and post-modernism any day!

I've been to Graceland, which I suppose qualifies as an Elvis museum. And I've been to a bunch of museums dedicated to US Presidents (FDR's was/is my favorite).



Wax museums, on the other hand, have absolutely nothing to recommend them.

[geodave]

Reminds me of a Steve Taylor song, "Meltdown at Madame Tousseau's". "The Queen is losing face!" "The General's been disarmed!" Hilarious.

[PB_guy]

Bitbuster,

My wife and I took 30 days to cross from the coastline in BC to the coastline in Nova Scotia where we stayed with relatives for a week before starting a 20 day return trip through the US (including a stop at Mount Rushmore). I would have loved to take twice as long, but we were time limited. Cardston Alberta (south of Lethbridge) has a 'carriage' museum which is a warehouse-type structure with thousands of 'horse-drawn carriages'. Smoky Lake, Alberta (north of Edmonton) has a giant pumpkin contest. Every place we traveled through had its own beauty, its own character, and its own characters. Look around and you might even find some where you live.

[jblewis]

I've been to only one - the Smithsonian one. Sadly, I didn't spend a whole lot of time in there - the space museum seemed so much more interesting.

[geodave]

Someday I would love to go to the Louvre -- just to say I've been there.

I've never even been to the local art museum, and I've lived here since 99.

[BitBuster]

I'm not a fan of the Smithsonian museums (and I've been to all the ones in DC, and some elsewhere).



PB_guy, 50 days hardly strikes me as "time limited"!

(I know what you mean, though. You could literally spend a lifetime just exploring this continent.)