Perhaps your travel plans will take you to a place you've visited in the past. Don't rule out a return visit to a museum; these days, many museums are renovating and relocating. In addition, new museums open every year. You may discover that the city you thought you knew is newly vibrant, thanks to new museum openings and renovations of existing exhibit halls. Let's take a look at some openings and re-openings around the U.S. Happily, all offer either free admission or senior discounts.
Washington, D.C.'s National Museum of American History, the home of the flag featured in Francis Scott Key's "The Star-Spangled Banner," reopened November 21, 2008, after a two-year renovation. This popular museum includes not only the famed flag but also Dorothy's ruby slippers from the film version of
The Wizard of Oz, Julia Child's kitchen, Kermit the Frog, artifacts from Hurricane Katrina and more.
The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, located onboard
U.S.S. Intrepid at Manhattan's Pier 86, reopened just before Veterans Day 2008. In addition to the
U.S.S. Intrepid herself, a retired aircraft carrier, you can visit a British Airways Concorde supersonic airplane, an outstanding display of airplanes and helicopters and a diesel-powered submarine, the
U.S.S. Growler.
The California Academy of Sciences, in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, reopened in September 2008 to much fanfare. Not only does the Academy house 15 exhibits, including a planetarium and aquarium, it's housed in a "green building" with a living roof. The Academy's exhibits were developed with sustainability in mind; for example, the coral reef was grown from confiscated fragments and specimens from the old museum facility.
Louisville, Kentucky's Frazier International History Museum opened in 2004 with a unique mission – to bring history to life through exhibits, programs, interpretation and a unique collection of arms and weaponry. The Frazier Museum has partnered with the U.K.'s Royal Armouries to present an amazing array of guns, armor and weapons dating from 1066 A. D. to the early 1900s. Daily presentations by historical interpreters, lectures and special exhibits help you see history develop from many points of view.
Los Angeles' newest museum - all 32,000 square feet of it - opened on November 28, 2008. The Sports Museum of Los Angeles advertises itself as the "largest known collection of iconic sports memorabilia and collectables [sic] under one roof in the world." The museum is built around Gary Cypres' amazing collection of sports memorabilia and contains everything from Babe Ruth's record-breaking baseball bat to a group of 25 commissioned oil paintings depicting members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. If you're a sports buff, you definitely need to add the Sports Museum of Los Angeles to your "must-see" list.
