Sunday morning we hopped back on the Metro and took Finn to the Museum of Natural History. She was excited to see the dinosaurs and animals based on our descriptions of the place, so when we finally got in the door it overwhelmed the three of us. I haven’t been inside in 30 years or more, so what I remember has changed dramatically. The sea life exhibit is an attention disorder nightmare; there are fantastic standalone displays placed randomly along the floor for viewers to ping-pong between. The design is beautiful but it’s hard to connect displays above or below eye-level with their information.

The dinosaur exhibit is breathtaking but a lot smaller than I remember. They’ve updated some of the larger displays but the dioramas are as I remember them, with an added layer of dust. The lighting is more dramatic now. I remember everything under bright white . Finn stood in awe of the T. Rex and stegosaurus displays, but it was hard to talk to her with the movement and noise around us.

I don’t remember much about the ice age exhibit from my history, but Finn seemed to like it a lot. The mammoth and mastodon skeletons were impressive. Jen and I laughed later at the early man display, with three hairy mannequins covered in dust. (There were lots of questions about early man and our ancestors later in the day).

We continued through the museum after a break for some lunch, and Finn did really well up until the gemstone exhibit, when she (and Jen and I) succumbed to overload. There’s so much to see, and so many people there. We bailed at about 4:30 after a snack and she promptly fell asleep on the train ride home.