Adventures for Anyone: There's a Museum for Everything!

I'm taking a little time today to talk about museums. We've all been to the nearest large city's history museum. We've all been dragged to notable museums all over the place to learn about the history of the country, our revolution, the civil war, and whatever dinosaurs may have been wandering around thousands of years ago. When I was young, we did the Philadelphia Freedom Hall thing and the Washington D.C. Smithsonian thing and the Natural History Museum in Chicago and so on.

As a child, I wasn't too fond of museums, unless it was The Henry Ford with its Rouge Tour and Greenfield Village, or The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Point blank, there were cool things to do there.

As an adult, I've discovered something; there's a museum for everything. And, the more offbeat the better. I've visited prisons, military monuments and museums, forts, out of the way art museums, mines, trains, planes, and all sorts of things. I still love The Henry Ford and The Museum of Science and Industry, but there's so much more out there. So, don't say you don't like museums. Maybe you just haven't found the right one yet.

I love Russian stuff, except war. The Hillwood Museum and Estate in Washington D.C. is an out of the way hidden gem. There are tons of items on display that probably shouldn't have ever left Russia, but there they are in all their glory for us to see. Loved it.

I've also spent time looking at all the evidence of aliens at the UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, New Mexico. If you don't think that's interesting, you haven't been there. The famous cemeteries of New Orleans; that's a museum. Not joking. New Orleans does have a VooDoo Museum as well.

No matter what you're interested in or curious about, there's a museum about it. There's a museum down in the Grand Canyon, celebrating the Havasupai who live there. Someone parked a bunch of old military ships and submarines under a bridge in Fall River, Massachusetts and Battleship Cove was born. Fall River is also home to the Lizzie Borden House. Creepy but very cool. Also creepy is the Mutter Museum in Philly. You have to see that one to appreciate it. And, lest I forget, there's more than one museum on top of Mount Washington in New Hampshire's beautiful White Mountains. There's also a historic cog railway to take you up to the top where the museums are.

London Bridge is a living museum in Lake Havasu, Arizona. There are any number of Native American Museums around the country. There are farm museums, old civilization museums like Sturbridge Village and Plimouth Plantation. There are all kinds of museums. In Connecticut, where I live, we have a number of trolley museums, The Barnum Museum of the Circus, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum, Mystic Seaport, and so many other specialty museums. Lake Compounce is a living museum with roller coasters to ride. All you have to do is look.

Most sports have a hall of fame and museum. Basketball is in Springfield, MA. Baseball is in Coopertown, NY. Football is in Canton, OH. Hockey is in Toronto, Canada. Indy Car Racing is in Indianapolis, IN. NASCAR is in Charlotte, NC. If music is more your thing, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is in Cleveland, OH, as is The Christmas Story House; also a museum.

The Clark is an art school and museum, tied to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and you can't really even find it if you don't know where it is. They have Monets. Not joking. And all of the Dutch Masters. You can visit various Frank Lloyd Wright locations around the country; all museums. Homes from the Vanderbilts to Mark Twain to JFK and beyond are all museums to tour. There's a Dr. Seuss Museum in Springfield, MA. Lots of fun. Provincetown, MA has a pirate museum. The Hemingway House in Key West, FL is a museum with six toed cats. There's something for everyone.

Tower on a mountain top? Hubleing Museum, CT. Steamtown in Scranton, PA? Museum. Coal mines, observatories, The Alamo, Alcatraz? All museums. Mount St. Helen's has a museum. Fairbanks, AK has a gold mining museum. Sault Ste. Marie has a museum of the locks. Mackinac Island, MI? Living museum. You can't even drive a car there. You want to see what being Dutch was like? Go to Holland, MI. King Kamehameha's Palace is a museum in Hawaii. They're everywhere, and there are so many kinds.

Bowling Green, KY? The National Corvette Museum, complete with sinkhole. Surprise! Broadway in Nashville? It's all basically a museum, and there's a lot of little museums in the neighborhood. Don't forget the Grand Ole Opry, the original building. That's a museum too.

Pretty much every town and every county has a museum. If you happen to be in a town, and wonder what went on there or why the town was ever created, there's probably a museum to explain that. It's something that we use as a fallback plan for rainy days while traveling, but it's interesting. I went to visit my son in Lima, OH. It poured. We went to the county museum and learned about why the town exists. It was interesting, and I don't know how someone got a train engine in the little museum.

So, don't rule out the museum. If you're interested in something like the history of nuclear testing and atomic bombs; there's a museum for that in Las Vegas, NV. I promise you, there's a museum for everything; even the witch hunts in Salem, MA. There are museums about everything. Shipwrecks, magic, earthquakes, paddle wheel boats, American Girl Dolls, and so on and so on.

So, if you're planning a vacation this summer, remember that it can't be sunny and beautiful out all the time, so museums are a great back up plan. Wherever you go for your vacation, look and see what kind of museums are around. Who knows? A Ripley's Believe it or Not can be a lot of fun. And, it can turn a rainy family vacation into a whole new adventure.

So, pack your kids, your bags and your back up plan and enjoy!

https://www.corvettemuseum.org/

https://www.johnnycashmuseum.com/

https://armstrongmuseum.org/

https://www.hillstead.org/

https://www.profootballhof.com/

https://www.packers.com/lambeau-field/hall-of-fame/hall-of-fame-inc

https://baseballhall.org/

https://www.rockhall.com/

https://www.hoophall.com/

https://www.hhof.com/

https://countrymusichalloffame.org/