The Museum of Natural History is not just a place to bring the kids, although there are a lot of them running around. This is a great place to have fun and experience science like a kid again. We were so excited to begin by walking through the Ocean Gallery. The large presence of being underneath the Giant Gray whale that is suspended from the ceiling was awe inspiring. We recommend going through this and all the galleries at a slower pace than what our schedule allotted for. Since we were on a mission we cruised through the Evolution of Man and went on to the Mammal Gallery.
We pressed on throughout the galleries to get to the dinosaur exhibit. The unfortunate part was that the main dinosaur gallery was closed, which is why we recommend researching museums prior to entering. This will give you an advantage to not only plan out what galleries you want to visit, but you’ll have a chance to see what is on view and which ones are under construction. Even though the full dinosaur gallery was closed we were still able to traipse through a smaller gallery that had the T-Rex on display. It wasn’t the same but it scratched our dinosaur itch.
Upon leaving the dinosaur exhibition, we entered into our favorite gallery, Gem and Minerals, which houses the Hope Diamond. Getting close to the Hope Diamond is like getting close to the Mona Lisa. The piece is small and surround by the masses. If you really want to get a good look at this beauty then you need to politely needle your way to the front. Once we were able to get to the glass case that this famous necklace is housed in, we waited for the case to rotate to our direction, snapped as many pictures as we could, and went on to view the other rare gems. The Hope Diamond and the other pieces were magnificent and we couldn’t even fathom wearing any piece in that entire gallery. After having our breath taken away by the rare stones we went through the rest of the gallery to view the gorgeous quartz and other rock formations that were on display. The mineral section was just as impressive and really showed how beautiful they are when found in their natural form.
As stated at the beginning, we did not have a lot of time to devote to the Museum of Natural History given the timeline of our trip but we will definitely be back to view the full dinosaur gallery.
The Traipsing Co. 