Museum Hopper

A few weeks ago, we were visiting my parents while my sister, niece (4.5) and nephew (6.5) were in town.  On the anniversary of Apollo 11 , we headed to the Detroit Science Center .   We chose to head downtown -- with my nephew so excited.  Obviously.  It turns out that the museum was free for the month sponsored in honor of Apollo.   We headed to the basement first.  We did a lot of playing with pulleys and magnets and lights and gears.  They had a lot of fun with a 500 lb with the pulley. Depending on where the pulleys are, the weight "feels" different -- they thought that was amazing.   They had water rockets -- unfortunately, one of them did not seal as well as the other one.  It seemed like there were a number of exhibits that were just not quite  right.  Some of the gears had been stripped in one exhibit.  Another one, when you pressed the buttons, nothing happened.   We did end up going t...

My sister came and visited over the Fourth of July holiday.  The day after, we headed to the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center .  We parked at work and walked over.   The museum is free to get into.  We headed all the way up to check the children's room first.  It seemed like it would be a good stop with kids -- they had different stations set up.   We then headed downstairs to the exhibit, Creatures: When Species Meet .  What an interesting exhibit.  So, it definitely did not seem to be vegan friendly.  Animals were involved in the creation of art.  (Also it seemed like it was a lot of glitter in this exhibit -- a surprising amount).  Some of it was really cool -- some of it was definitely on the odder end of the spectrum.  I really liked the "art nests."  The artist left interesting materials around for the birds to make into nests.  This was an aquarium with fish -- the water is tested daily and t...

This post is probably going to be rather short!  We went to the Castle de Montjuic .  I will admit that I heard the name and definitely thought we were headed to an actual castle.  It was definitely a prison / jail!   The main part of the jail is not open.  The main courtyard has some galleries.  We headed up to the roof, which had a beautiful view of Barcelona.   The museum was not very expensive to get into, so probably worth it for the views from the top.  I was a little anxious about the sun at this point! While we were there, the gallery showed scenes from the Spanish revolution.  An artist had also gone to as many of the execution sites and taken photographs of the burial sites.  It was rooms of these photographs.   Time in fortress: 45 minutes Times visited: 1 Overall: B

On a rainy day, Jason and I decided to head to Osaka.  One of the places that was recommended to visit was the Osaka Museum of History.  I figured this would be a good review of the history of Japan and how large industrial cities have developed within Japan.   We headed over there as soon as we arrived in Osaka.  They really did not want us to wear our wet rain coats.  We found the logistics a little complicated.  While fine that we took the elevators to the top floor, we took escalators to the next floor down.  At the end though, it had us take the escalators down an additional six floors.  Each floor required multiple loops. The translation level to English was quite limited.  We found as well that parts of the museum were quite unedited.  It was challenging to understand how all the floors fit together.   In theory, it was walking us chronologically through the development of the Osaka.   One of the p...

Over Memorial Day weekend, my parents, my husband, and I went to the conservatory for the butterfly exhibit on a bit of a whim.   The exhibit was only there for a limited time.  The exhibit had quite a line to purchase tickets, but it did serve as a gating mechanism into the exhibit.  At least it kept a bit of the traffic out of the exhibit, which was packed.  I wished it had better traffic flow.  It was awkward to get around and did not really optimize the center of the space.   We enjoyed seeing the butterflies although did not see any monarchs, which were what supposedly the main attraction.  We also saw another creature that was a bit unexpected!   I did not end up getting a picture of it, but I really loved seeing the big blue Peruvian butterflies.     Time spent: 45 minutes Times visited: 1 Overall: B

While in New Orleans, we visited two of the state museums.  This is the one we went to second.  We went with my parents, my sister, her husband and their two children (four and two).  This museum focuses on the history of New Orleans.   I will say overall, this museum was really beautiful.  I could imagine some awesome cocktail hours overlooking the square here! This museum seemed a little more tired than the one that Jason and I had visited the day before with the exception of the second floor.  The second floor seemed to have been edited.  It was also more interactive and engaging than the other floors.  My niece and nephew definitely enjoyed it the most.  My nephew wished that the video on the pirates would "have more" aka was longer!  They also enjoyed playing the drum.  I really enjoyed the large painting on the second floor of a battle -- on the painting, it was highlighted which were the key elements to pay attention to t...

I spent a weekend in Boston which is where I am currently working.  I wanted to go to the Museum of Fine Arts since it is has paintings on my 1,001 paintings list.   I arrived around 2:30 pm to a line outside of the museum to get in.  It took over a half hour.  The reason we were given is that there were a number of events for the Persian new year.  I find it hard to believe that there was a big event starting 2 hours prior to the close of the museum...so, if that is the case, the line was carry over from earlier in the day.  Once I got up to the cash register, they did not even have all of them up and running! I saw the greatest hits.  They do have some beautiful art.  I did not understand though some of where they had queues. E.g. I wasn't allowed to get up close to these two paintings since they had some time capsule opening.  I don't understand why you would block off two of your top paintings. I did think their Egyptian art w...

Our first day back in Buenos Aires, Jason and I went adventuring walking through town.  I wanted to check out the art museum.  We head to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes .   The museum has a variety of different art work with some of the greats, modern Argentinian art, and some special exhibits.  Admission was free, which was great, obviously, and especially, since about half of the museum is under construction.   We quickly bopped into the museum.  I liked their usual exhibits -- they were generally fine.  Some of the signage was in English and I was surprisingly able to translate a decent amount of the Spanish to English.  Or at least, I think I was able to translate! The most interesting part of the museum was the new exhibit, The Fatal Seduction - Erotic Imagery of the 19th Century .  I mean, hard to top that !  It has a few different sections of the exhibit.  One of the sections was on rape in art.  I wish I had b...

We visited the Cathedral of our Lady in Antwerp.  It was a beautiful old Church in the middle of historic downtown Antwerp.  I loved that it was on the main square. " P1010905GroenplaatsAntwerpen " by G.Lanting - Own work . Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons . This was on our list to visit in Belgium as it actually has one of the paintings on my list of 1001 paintings !  It was so beautiful by Peter Paul Rubens, his The Raising of the Cross .   The cathedral also has a few others.  The others were quite beautiful.   As this was a Catholic Church, it was more ornate than some of the other churches we saw.  It had a number of old tombs and other sculptures as well.     time in church: 2 hrs times visited: 1 overall: B

We visited the Cathedral of our Lady in Antwerp.  It was a beautiful old Church in the middle of historic downtown Antwerp.  I loved that it was on the main square. " P1010905GroenplaatsAntwerpen " by G.Lanting - Own work . Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons . This was on our list to visit in Belgium as it actually has one of the paintings on my list of 1001 paintings !  It was so beautiful by Peter Paul Rubens, his The Raising of the Cross .   The cathedral also has a few others.  The others were quite beautiful.   As this was a Catholic Church, it was more ornate than some of the other churches we saw.  It had a number of old tombs and other sculptures as well.     time in church: 2 hrs times visited: 1 overall: B

to fill some time in our day in san gimignano, jason and i decided to check out the museum of torture .  i think this is probably the weirdest museum i have ever been to, even more than the museum of sex in new york city.   the museum layout is fairly straightforward and can be viewed in almost any order.  it is primarily laid out with a description and the torture device in question.  they are somewhat clustered according to when they were used (i.e. the electric chair is near the gas chamber).   the museum was fairly informative, but just not very creative.  i did learn about some new methods of torture (iron maiden anyone?), but some of the information was fairly common place. after about 30 minutes, i did finally have to leave.  it was giving me a bit of the creeps and i needed to get into the sunlight.  jason did go to the second museum, which is included in the ticket.  he spent about 45 minutes in that museum as well. ...

one of our first true touristy stops in siena was at the torre del mangia , the tall tower in their main plaza, palazzo publico .  the next day, we went to the museo civico , which is also housed in the city hall off the plaza.   the view from the top of the torre del mangia is pretty fantastic.  it has a great vantage point on the top of siena's duomo as well as the surrounding countryside.  their system for climbing the tire could be expedited a bit, but it does prevent the horrible problem of tourist crossing in very narrow stairwells.  this stairwell was pretty typical for stairwells built in the medieval ages/early renaissance.   Siena's Duomo Palazzo Pubblico from up high   the museum is in the right side of the building below.  torre del mangia is at the top of the tower (obviously)!  the square is pretty spectacular. the museum consists of a number of frescos and is within the old civil building on the squ...

when jason and i were in lyon, he had planned for us to visit this art museum, musee des beaux arts de lyon , on the first afternoon after we arrived.  unfortunately, i was exhausted and wanted to take a nap that afternoon.  later that night as we were wandering through the city, we stumbled across the museum.  the museum garden is "open" 24 hours a day.  we were able to wander through the open air garden, which was filled with beautiful statues.  i wish the statues were better lit. we attempted to go back the next day, but they were closed because of the weather?  we think?  i am not quite sure about that!  it was quite disappointing!   that is definitely part of the reason due to the lower score! time in museum: 15 minutes times visited: 1 overall: B

i decided to quickly hop into coster diamonds before heading into the rijksmuseum, which is just across the street.  coster diamonds has been in the business since 1846 and operates in amsterdam, the diamond capital of the world. inside the museum, it steps you through the process of polishing a diamond, what to look for and points out some of coster diamonds' famous cuts.  coster recently invented (or accomplished) a new cut, the royal 201 .  it is pretty magnificent.  check it out compared to a diamond of the same size and quality of a "brillant" cut. the exhibit was just very informative as someone who knows very little about diamonds.  this chart was particularly helpful! one of their most famous diamonds is in the crown jewels of england.  they have a replica of it in the museum. overall, i gave it a "B," which for most museums would mean "ehh, if you have a lot of extra time, go for it."  in this case, though, it means something...

my first stop on tuesday in paris was sainte-chapelle , the "most beautiful church in paris."  this church was involved in the museum pass and is one of the national monuments .  i decided to go since it opened slightly earlier than notre dame and so i figured i could see it before heading over.  this was also one of the few churches that charges to go in (thus the museum pass).     i arrived about 15 minutes before it opened, but it took me over a half hour to get inside.it took about 15 minutes to get into the church since we had to go through security.  it was quite slow.  i will admit that i feel like i missed half the church, but i do not think i did.  each floor was quite small inside, but did have glorious stained glass windows.  it is two stories high.  they are about 15 feet tall and the intricacy is crazy.  i would not be surprised if there are over 30 pieces per foot.   besides the stained glass, t...

the first full day in maui, jason, julie and i went to the bailey house museum , which happened to be pretty close to julie's apartment.  this museum was highly rated within my guide book, but i was a little disappointed in what was offered.   after our busy day popping around paia, it was a nice and peaceful spot.  the museum was 4 main rooms 1.  a room with his paintings 2.  a room with native hawaiian artifacts 3.  two rooms of items that the bailey family had at the plantation it was interesting, but museum seems like a stretch.  it also seems like a stretch that this was a top 10 place to visit on maui.  the paintings were quite beautiful.  they had about six paintings of maui from ~1850s.  i do love a good oil landscape.  they had been painted by reverend bailey.  the room with hawaiian artifacts seemed tired.  it had some interesting information about hunting, weaving and fishing.  these were all na...

the day after visiting el museo larco , we as a large group went to huaca pucllana .  this is a large pyramid in the middle of lima!  here is an arial view of the huaca .  restoration and preservation of this huaca began in the early 1990s if my memory proves correct.  up until then, it had been used as a soccer field, motorcycle track and just a general gathering place! the huaca was used as a ceremonial and city center for the lima people who were living in lima (coincidentally) between 200 and 700 AD.   we had a guided tour for the huaca with a few other groups.  the tour guide was a little more robotic in her delivery and also was not as able to answer our questions than our guide at the museo larco.  that being said, her english was still waaay better than my spanish!  they also had llamas and alpacas on site.  here is a picture of an alpaca from another place we went: we found out more about the limas.  this nicel...

on the first thursday , my classmate, priscilla, and i went to the burke museum of natural history and culture up on the university of washington campus.  it's considered one of the better museums in seattle. we headed up after work on the bus to check it out.  priscilla has been living up near the UW campus and knew where to go.   it was an interesting combination of stuff like the royal bc museum .  the artifacts and exhibits definitely overlapped between the two museum.  i enjoyed the photographs of the owls .  i would have loved a little more details on how many hours or shots they had to take to get some of these amazing action shots.  the wolves exhibit was pretty neat, a little simplistic, but interesting to learn about the wolves.   the downstairs is the "culture" part of the museum.  it had a section of the "first nations" that had a number of the same or similar objects from the royal bc museum including a sectio...

happy holidays!  over the break, my boyfriend and i decided to go to detroit and check out the detroit science center .  if you can't tell the trend, my boyfriend likes the science, hands on museums.  we headed down there for an afternoon of fun. we got there around 2 and were able to park in the lot right outside the front of the museum.  this parking lot was a "drop the parking money in the box" type of lot, so be sure to have exact change ($5);  otherwise you will need to go into the museum to get it. so, we headed in and checked out the speed section, which had famous cars, boats, motor racing as well as celebratory plaques of famous and innovators in the fields.  we then walked further into the rest of the museum.  we were first struck that a few portions of it were closed for repairs or maybe renovations.  i liked the energy portion about fueling cars.  we then wandered through the health and body section, which was interesting....

at the end of finals, i went to the exhibit museum of natural history with my friend, daphne!  i remember going to this museum as a 2nd grader after we learned about the dinosaurs.    we had lots of fun.  it is a very "old school" museum although i do think bits and pieces are being updated.  daphne noticed that it had a lot of words/descriptions, much more than you see in the newer museums.  we saw dinosaurs, wolly mammoths and lots of different rocks and crystals. we thought it would be great for any families that had young children.  while we were there, they had a tour for children and the tour leader was great.  we felt like it could use a little face lift, but it was lots of fun for a quick (free) excursion! times visited: 1 time spent in museum: a little under 2 hours overall: B