National Museum of American History

With this post, I will have reached the finale of the Washington D.C. adventure (woo-hoo). It took me nearly a year to make a post for each DC museum visited (I didn’t even visit that many), but the summer memories surely brightened those cold, dreary winter days when I just sat at home and ate. Without anymore commentary, the last DC museum is…

National Museum of American History, located in Washington, D.C.
(No building picture because I was extremely tired at the time)

The National Museum of American History is part of the Smithsonian Institution, so it goes without saying that admission is free. During the summer, the hours are from 10am to 7:30pm, and regular hours are from 10am to 5:30pm. The National Museum of American History is located right next to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, so it was pretty natural that me and my traveling companions hopped over after the natural history museum visit, to take advantage of the summer hours and to get the most out of our DC adventure.

We visited the museum pretty late, around 5, thus there were no more floor maps to guide us, so we just followed the wall map as best as we could. The museum layout was a bit inconvenient (I consulted the museum website and found a museum floor map). The museum has three floors in one building, which is perfectly normal except that the main entrance is on the second floor, which means visitors will eventually have to retrace their steps if they want to leave from the same entrance they came from. Nevertheless, the stairs aren’t that steep, so it’s not that troublesome (but I was super tired when I visited, so I really didn’t want to walk extra).

The museum has a series of iconic American history objects placed throughout the museum that highlight the theme of the exhibitions in that area. The first (and only) one that I manage to see and take a photograph of was the Civil War Draft Wheel, which identified the American wars and politics area of the museum.

The main appeal of the museum for me was the gowns worn by the first ladies, thus we headed to the third floor where the exhibit is located. However, without a handy dandy floor map, we weren’t so lucky to get the right exhibit the first time. The first gallery visited was entitled “The American Presidency”, which details all aspects of the lives of the American presidents. I found the personal lives of the presidents to be most interesting: to see the toys their children or grandchildren played with, the clothes they wore, the hobbies they had. It makes us realize that presidents are normal people too, people who want to enjoy life and spend time with their loved ones.

Right after the American presidency gallery, we found the First Ladies exhibit, it was right next door. The gowns were very elegant, ones that I can envision a first lady wearing. It was nice to see all the gowns side by side, to see how fashion has changed since America came to be. Aside from the gowns, the exhibit consisted of china and tableware that the First ladies used to entertain at the White House. In addition, there is a section that highlighted how various First ladies contributed to their respective husband’s presidential administration, which demonstrates that the First ladies weren’t there just to look nice and serve the foreign guests food. However, I felt that the section was overshadowed by the rest of the exhibit. The exhibit aims to encourage visitors to think about the changing roles of women, but because the gowns and the fine china are the main focus, the exhibit perpetuates the idea that a woman has to look beautiful and serve a delicious dinner. I feel more emphasize needs to put on the changing roles of women for the visitors to really consider it. Although I have my complaints, I did enjoy the exhibit.

Continuing our exploration of the third floor, we ventured into the exhibit entitled, “The Price of Freedom: Americans at War”. As indicated by the title, the exhibition chronicles Americans at war, from the American Revolution to the present day conflicts in Iraq. I quite liked the section on the American Revolution because I understand the Revolutionary war the best of all the wars that America has participated in, and it’s easiest to enjoy something that you understand. However, I found the highlight of the whole exhibit to be the one room that displayed the villains of World War II: Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo. The room consisted of three display boards only, but it was very impressive somehow.

Finishing off on the third floor was the exhibit on the Gunboat Philadelphia, the oldest surviving American fighting vessel. The Philadelphia was a vessel that was used during the American Revolution. It sank during a battle on Lake Champlain in New York, and wasn’t recovered till 1935 with most of its equipment still intact. The gunboat was moved to the museum in 1964.

The museum had an exhibit about the Little Golden Books while my traveling buddies and I were visiting. During the early 20th century, story books for children were expensive and only available to the privileged, but with the introduction of Little Golden Books, which were  inexpensive, sturdy and child-centered, story books became accessible to all children. (I kind of remember seeing the Little Golden Books when I was younger, the cardboard covers and gold foil spines.)

On the second floor, we explored the “American Stories” exhibit which contains many artifacts that told stories of America’s history. Since we were running low on time and energy, I ran to see the most famous of them, the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz.  There are a lot of artifacts in the gallery, so it will taken hours to see each and every one in detail, therefore go early if you want to be thorough.

We didn’t explore the first floor galleries because as mentioned above, we were exhausted. All in all, we spent about an hour at the National Museum of American History, and that is definitely not enough time to see everything. I managed to see all the exhibits I wanted and bits of others, but I missed out on a lot, so this museum  deserves a future revisit (and has been placed on my to revisit list). In the meantime, history buffs, and anyone interested in American history will enjoy the museum, but others will also find something to marvel at (the First Ladies’ gowns are a good place to start), so go take a look at the National Museum of American History if you have a moment to spare.

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

Happy summer, everyone! For the months of July to September, I will try to post twice a month, once in the middle of the month and once at the end. Did I quit the procrastinator’s club? Of course… not! This summer is approaching fast, and I’m still working on last summer’s adventures, and I just went on vacation not too long ago, so I have a significant backlog that will last till next year if I don’t do something about it. So let’s begin… I love natural history museums, and I wouldn’t have missed this one for anything…

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, located in Washington, D.C.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is free admissions, being part of the Smithsonian Institution and all, and was opened from 10am to 7:30pm when I visited during the summer. The floor plan of the museum is available for a suggested donation of $1. (You don’t have to pay for it, you can just wave to the staff members, take one and walk off, if you are thick-skinned enough to do that. I couldn’t do it, but one of my traveling buddies was able to, so we got free floor plans, which I kinda feel guilty about now, it was only a dollar. Sorry museum, next time, I’ll definitely pay for it.) The museum covers a lot of material, so even if there were no crowds, it would take some time to look at everything. However, my traveling buddies and I made the mistake of visiting on a Saturday, which meant  swarms of people pushing against you as you tried to move from exhibit to exhibit, so definitely try to visit on a weekday to avoid crowds.

The museum welcomes its visitors with the elephant.  (The place to buy or take a floor guide.) The first gallery visited was the Hall of Mammals, hence meeting the relatives. So what makes a mammal, a mammal? A mammal has hair, feeds its young with milk and has special ear bones. (I didn’t know about the special ear bones, learned something new.) The gallery displayed various mammals from around the world, even a model of our oldest relative, which is some sort of shrew-like animal. (I had to Google that, I thought it was a rodent-like animal. Shrew, mouse, they sort of look the same to me.)

Moving along, the Hall of Human Origins presented the evidence of human evolution from ape-like ancestors to human . The gallery was very detailed, it explained what characteristics make a human, a human, and why these characteristics evolved to what they are today. For example, the various body types we see today. Early humans had small bodies, but had large digestive tracts, because they ate mostly plants, which takes longer to digest. When early humans migrated to hotter climates, and started eating meat and other foods, they evolved narrow bodies so that they could stay cool, and since meat is easier to digest than plants, there was no longer the need to have such a large digestive tract, thus narrower bodies. As humans migrated to colder climates, they evolved to more compact bodies to stay warm, and as they continued to eat meat and cooked foods, the digestive tract remained small. Modern humans live all over the globe, therefore there’s a lot of variety to the modern human body. My fave part of this gallery was the time tunnel, where you can see animations of early humans (the picture on the right in the second row).

Next up, I saw the Ocean hall, which is a detailed gallery all about the ocean, almost anything you want to know about the ocean can probably be found here. The gallery was huge, and contained so much that I found the gallery a bit perplexing and overwhelming. When I first walked in, I didn’t really know what was going on (and the guide map is no help here), there was so much to look out, I didn’t know where to focus. When I looked around quite a bit, I thought that the gallery was organized around the ocean zones, from the sunlight surface, to the twilight zone, to the deep sea. However, as you move through the rooms of the gallery, the organization changed, (I wished they had a floor map for the individual galleries.) so in the end I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at, just that it was ocean related. Following the ocean hall, I ventured into the gallery entitled “African Voices”, which focused on African culture.

The last gallery I visited on the first floor was the fossil hall, which was the most popular and crowded of all the galleries. They had fossils of land mammals, sea creatures, even plants, and everybody’s favorite, the dinosaurs. (The room with the dinosaur fossils was the most crowded, the closest I got to seeing the dino bones was through my camera lens.) The fossil hall was well organized, you could easily tell what fossils you were looking at, as each room was clearly labelled. According to the Smithsonian website, the fossil hall is closed for renovation till 2019, however the fossils are displayed elsewhere in the museum (please consult museum visit for more info).

Moving along to the second floor, I started at  the Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals.   The gallery was split into four different sections: the solar system, plate tectonics and volcanoes, rocks and mining, and gems and minerals. I don’t quite remember the solar system section, so I will assume I wasn’t all that impressed with it. The plate tectonics and volcanoes, and the rocks and mining were both interesting. Some of the rocks were displayed in a very beautiful manner, similar to a natural landscape. The gems and minerals section was similar to a department store that specializes in jewelry. All the gems and minerals were laid out as if they were about to be sold; so for all those gem lovers out there, definitely go check it out, you may not want to leave.

Usually I’m not a fan of crowds, it means pushing and shoving to get to the front, but when you are in a museum, and there’s a crowd, it means something super interesting is on display. So after some maneuvering, I managed to get close enough to see what the deal was, and it was the famous Hope diamond. It was quite nice to see in person, it has its own room, but  quite crowded, however it is worth the pushing and shoving (I am now able to say I saw the famous Hope diamond).

The museum had a gallery dedicated to plants and bugs entitled, “Butterflies and Plants: Partners in Evolution”. The gallery focused on how bugs and plants have evolved together throughout the earth’s history. In addition, the museum has a live butterfly house, however there was a fee to go in, and since I was frugal, I chose not to, so I don’t know what I missed. (Feel free to tell me if you have seen it.) There was also an insect zoo, for the bug lovers.

Right by the bugs and plants gallery, there was a small area that focused on Egyptian burial rituals. I’m quite fascinated by burial rituals, I like to see how different cultures send off their loved ones to the next world, the items they bury with them, the things they do. When I visited the museum, they had a special exhibit entitled “Written in Bones: Forensic Files from the 17th Century Chesapeake”. The exhibit had a lot of bones on display with accompanying stories of what may have happened to these bones.

Finishing on the second floor, I saw the Korea Gallery, which displayed a variety of Korean artifacts. And last, but not least, in the basement of the museum was the Birds of DC gallery. (If you are interested in birds, I highly suggest you visit the Birds of Vermont museum.)

My traveling companions and I spent about fours hours to see the whole museum. I’m not quite sure about them, but I feel that I could have spent a lot longer; there were some exhibits that I sort of just breezed through because of the crowds. I had a wonderful experienced and learned a handful of new facts, thus I highly recommended everyone to visit. Everyone will find something to enjoy at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Smithsonian’s National Zoo

The Washington DC adventure goes on… I’ve only been to one zoo in NYC, and the admission was costly. However, when you are in DC, even the zoo there is free. So not missing the chance to see something for free…

Smithsonian’s National Zoo, located in Washington, D.C.
(No photo of the entrance because I couldn’t capture the whole entrance from the street curb)

Coming from NYC, where it is much easier to travel around by public transportation than driving, I have a special fondness for public transportation, therefore I’m always eager to take a bus or train to go somewhere. Lucky for me, Smithsonian’s National Zoo is not next to the National Mall, thus I got  the chance to check out the DC Metro system (only the rail system).

The DC rail system consists of five train lines, labelled by color, so it’s not that confusing to use and you probably won’t get lost, even if it is the first time your taking the train. The way to pay for the train ride was quite interesting to me. In NYC, the fare is a set price regardless of how far you travel, however the DC rail fare is based on the distance traveled. So you swipe your card (or ticket) to go in and swipe again when you exit, and viola, the fare gets calculated and is deducted off your card. (Don’t try to cheat the system and not swipe out, because there is an exit fare that gets deducted the next time you swipe to take the train. How do I know this? I think it is mentioned somewhere, and also because one of my traveling buddies tried that. The exit fee got deducted the next time we took the train.) And that is the basics of the DC metro rail system.

Smithsonian’s National Zoo is accessible by both car and public transportation, but seeing how excited I am about public transportation, we took the train. The zoo is located on the red line, and according to the zoo website, the zoo is located equal distance from  the Woodley Park/Zoo/Adam Morgans stop and the Cleveland Park stop. However, the fares differ slightly (around 25-50 cent), Cleveland Park being  the more expensive one (coming from the National Mall area). The zoo website said that it is an uphill walk from the Woodley Park stop,and advised travelers that want an easier trek to the zoo to take the train to the Cleveland Park stop. Therefore we took the train to the slightly more expensive Cleveland Park stop and walked our way over to the zoo. (When we left the zoo, we walked to the Woodley Park stop, and I did notice we were walking downhill, so the website was correct. Take the train to Cleveland Park, if uphills aren’t your thing.) Also, don’t worry about not knowing the exact way to the zoo, there are plenty of people heading towards the zoo, so just follow the crowd and you’ll get there fine.

After arriving at the zoo, we found out that there’s a fee for the guide map (I think $2), so we decided to forgo that and just follow the path. For those of you who are short on time and wish to see specific animals only, there is an app you can download onto your phone for a small fee ($1.99) to guide you around the zoo. For others who don’t wish to spend the money at all, but have sometime beforehand, there’s a guide map pdf on the zoo website that you can print and bring with you. For all others, following the path is good enough, you can check the maps that are posted at the zoo. (That’s what me and my buddies did, and we saw everything.)

Smithsonian’s National Zoo is really big, so you’ll want to arrive early and plan to stay for the day if you want to see all the animals. They have the standard animals found at most zoos, but there are also have various others. For example, the Giant Panda. (I was hoping to see the pandas do other things besides eat and sleep, but it was good enough to see one in person.)

As mentioned, the zoo is really big, so we spent around 5 hrs to see the whole thing. I really enjoyed the visit, thus I highly recommend anyone visiting Washington D.C. to take the train and go visit Smithsonian’s National Zoo, because it’s free and who doesn’t like the zoo. Just remember to wear good shoes and put on sunblock, because you’ll be outside all day and walking around nonstop.

National Air and Space Museum

Continuing the adventure from DC… The Smithsonian has these two museums that are really similar, and I have always thought that I visited the one in DC, but turns out, I visited its twin in Virginia. Hence, it’s actually my first time seeing the…

National Air and Space Museum, located in Washington, D.C.

Another museum belonging to the Smithsonian Institution, thus free admission. (Yay!) Since we went during the summer, we were able to take advantage of the extended hours and stayed till they closed at 7:30 (regular closing is at 5:30). We had about two hours to explore the two floors of of the museum. The museum is well laid out, with individually themed galleries uniting around the main theme of spacecrafts and air crafts. There are about 20 themed sections  that are free to everyone, with an additional 3  sections that require money (the IMAX movie, the planetarium and the flight simulator). Since we only had two hours, we barely had enough time to see all the freebies, thus we didn’t even venture into the paid sections.

The first, and only, section that was geared towards kiddies, was the gallery entitled “How Things Fly”. The gallery was interactive, so there was lots to touch and play with, thus the area was overflowing with smaller children. Next we were “Looking at Earth” through satellite images, so if you enjoy satellite images and the devices used to capture these images, this is your section. For all the space nerds out there, (I am!), we “Explore the universe” through the evolution of telescopes. This section proceeded in chronological order by showing us how our understanding of the universe changes based on what we use to examine the universe. In the beginning, we used only our eyes, thus we believed that the Earth was the center of the universe. With the invention of simple telescopes, we realized that we were wrong, the Earth is not the center, but the sun is the center of the universe. As more complex telescopes were made, we realized that the sun is not at the center of the universe, the universe is actually much bigger than we imagined. Following the exploration of the universe, we saw  some very nice model replicas of various space crafts. There was a replica of the Apollo Lunar Module and another of a space shuttle. For those who have ever wondered how astronauts use the bathroom, there’s an answer on display. (I’ve wondered about that.)

 

As much as I enjoyed the gallery on the universe, my favorite section was the one entitled”Early Flight”. I like the extravagance of these flying vehicles and the science-fiction element that is seen in them. Since the first flying vehicles were just invented in the early 1900s, people didn’t understand all that much about what can fly, and what cannot, so their imagination ran wild. Flying houses, boats, hang gliders, anything that cross the mind was a possibility, and it was exciting to see all this creativity.

 

Next up, we saw the exhibits on “Jet aviation”, “Golden Age of Flight” and “America By Air”. Let me be honest, I am not being the biggest fan of air crafts, thus I don’t really remember too much about these exhibits. However, there were a lot of various air crafts on display, so air craft enthusiasts will definitely want to pay more attention than I did at these sections.

 

Reaching the second floor of the museum, we explored exhibits on air crafts used in combat. These exhibits included “Sea-air operations”, World War II aviation” and “Great War In the Air”.  Once again, I breezed through these sections because of my own bias, however, a great deal of thought and effort were put into these galleries.  When you walk into the “Sea-air operations” gallery, it was actually as if you were walking into an aircraft carrier. In addition, there were some intricate replicas on display.  I actually enjoyed the “Great War in the Air” gallery because of the vibrant colors from popular culture during the World War I era. It transports one to the an idealized version of the era.

 

On to “exploring the planets”, we saw  various space craft replicas that were used to explore the solar system. In addition to space crafts, there were details about the planets. (I could go on and on about the planets, but let’s not get side-tracked.) After we saw “Pioneers of flight”, which displayed various air crafts that pushed the boundaries of flying further.

My second favorite exhibit was the one about the “Wright Brothers”.  When you walk into the gallery, you are transported to the time of the Wright brothers, with their 1903 Wright Flyer being the centerpiece. The layout of the gallery told the story of the Wright brothers right before my eyes, of how they invented the first airplane.

The last two galleries to be explored were “Apollo to the Moon” and “Time and Navigation”. “Apollo to the Moon” had many artifacts relating to the Apollo mission that took man to the moon. “Time and Navigation” was an interesting gallery detailing the revolution of timekeeping. Unfortunately,  little time was spent in these two galleries because our time was running out and my travel buddies really wanted to go spend money at the gift shop.

Two hours is not really enough time to look at everything in detail (especially if your party has the need to buy souvenirs at the gift shop), but that was all the time we spent there. My opinion of the museum is sort of mixed, but leaning more towards the I enjoyed it side. The museum is devoted to air and space crafts, so if that’s your thing, you will love every second of it. However, if you’re similar to me,(I like colorful exhibits), there will be some galleries that you won’t want to leave, and others where you walked through the whole gallery and couldn’t have walk out of there faster. Nevertheless, all the galleries were really well thought out, so definitely give the National Air and Space museum a chance, who knows, you might end up really liking the whole museum (or at the least a few of the galleries).

International Spy Museum

February has been a super long month, even though it has the least amount of days. With all the snowstorms blowing through this month, I’ve had quite a few snow days, but because of these snow days, I had to put in a lot of OT, therefore I’ve neglected writing and visiting museums. Luckily, I have my backlog, so back to the summery days in Washington, D.C…. The Smithsonian museums are awesome, and they are definitely must sees if you visit, however if you want to stray away from traditional-type museums and visit something a bit more on the quirky side, then visit…

International Spy Museum, located in Washington, D.C.

(The Spy museum doesn’t allow photography inside, so I didn’t take any, but I did see people breaking the rule.)

The International Spy Museum is within walking distance from the National Mall, so it’s easy to stop by when you need a break from art and history. When we visited in the summer, the museum was opened from 9am-7pm. Prior to visiting, I had checked the museum website, intending to buy the tickets online so we wouldn’t have to wait in line in the heat. Luckily, I didn’t; the free DC visitor’s guides, which are usually located in hotel reception areas, had a coupon for $3 off. So I ended up paying $17.97, after taxes and all,  and we somehow managed to get to the museum when it opened at 9am, thus avoiding any lines.

After paying for admission, we took the elevator up to the third floor to see the exhibits. The museum has three floors, but the second floor is designated for the special admissions offered by the museum, not for general admission tickets, so the museum really consists of two floors.  When arriving on the third floor, be prepared to strike a spy pose and get photographed.  You can also adopt a cover identity while exploring the museum; basically, you pick an identity, memorize the facts, and pretend to be that person during your visit. Later, you can see how much you remember about who you are pretending to be on the interactive stations.

The museum has a plenty of hands-on exhibits to give visitors a taste of what being a spy is like. One of the highlights of my visit was definitely crawling through the air ducts. You probably have seen people crawling through air ducts for a variety of reasons on TV. It is something that I have always wanted to try, and well, now I have, and it was a fun experience. (Not difficult, but not super easy either, crawling can be tiring.)

In addition to the interactive exhibits, the museum has a rather large collection of items on display. During the earlier section of the museum, there was so much on display, that I felt the organization was a bit messy and cramped. So I breezed through the earlier section, since I couldn’t really focus because there was too look it. However, I really enjoyed  the section about the history of spying. I liked how it showed various cultures and their spying histories. If you are big James Bond fan, than the first floor is where you want to be. The museum has practically the whole first floor dedicated to Bond, with various items from Bond films on display. I’m not a big James Bond fan, but I did enjoy the Bond gallery. You can try making your own villain lair, and hanging onto a plane at the interactive stations. (You don’t really hang onto a plane, but you grab onto to a pole and you try to hang on for as long as you can.)

We spent about 2 hours at the International Spy Museum, but we could’ve have spent more time if we looked more closely at everything and tried out all the interactive sections. For the price of admission that I paid, I felt that it was worth it. There was a lot to see, and there were many interactive stations that it warrants the admission price. (Electricity is expensive, and when you have more interactive stations, it costs more money to operate.)  All in all, I enjoyed my visit to the International Spy Museum, it was fun, and brought out the child in me with all the hands-on exhibits (I wanted to touch everything).  If you happen to enjoy quirky museums, like spy-related stuff or be a big Bond fan, then visit the International Spy museum, you’ll enjoy it (but be sure to look for a deal or coupons, you’ll enjoy it even more).

National Postal Museum

With the cold winter upon us, I haven’t stepped out to a museum in almost two months, but that’s okay, I have enough backlog to last for a bit, so let the warm summer memories begin… This past summer, my traveling companions and I visited Washington D.C., or as I like to phrase it, the city of free museums. Washington D.C. is the place to visit if you really like museums or are on a tight vacation budget. With over 10 free museums (collectively known as the Smithsonian Institution), there’s plenty to see. First stop on the Washington D.C. museum tour is…

National Postal Museum, located in Washington, D.C.

The National Postal Museum is located right by Union Station, the central hub of transportation in Washington DC.  Admissions for the museum is free (who doesn’t love free), and was opened from 10am to 5pm during the summer time. The National Postal Museum is not located at the National Mall, where a majority of the other museums are, so lucky for us (and maybe not so lucky for the museum), there wasn’t a huge crowd or there would’ve been a lot of pushing involved.

The National Postal museum is one big spacious floor, located on the lower level of the building. It is a well organized museum, with individual galleries all uniting around the central theme of the postal service. The floor map that is provided has a suggested order to visit the museum, but being the tourists that we are, we just gravitated  to the nearest thing in sight, hence, we ended up doubling back at one point. We started at the “Systems at Work” gallery, an interactive gallery demonstrating the process of mail sorting. In this area, you can cancel a stamp on a postcard (you may keep the postcard as a souvenir).

We then saw “Customers and Communities”, which demonstrated how mail has impacted city and rural routes; in this area, there is a really nice diorama showing the various effects that the postal system had on urban city streets. (These first two galleries, we went through backwards, as in we went in through the exit and come out at the entrance. The other galleries, we saw them the proper way.) Next, we traveled through a small forest path, which had lots of fun trivia, that mail carriers from the 1600s had used. I really enjoyed the forest path, even though it was super short, because for that small instance, it felt as if I was transported to a different place. In this gallery, we saw the exhibits on how the postal system united the nation, such as the use of stagecoaches and steamboats to transport mail to the country’s frontiers as the nation was expanding.  There was even an exhibit on the famous Pony Express.

For more recent exhibits concerning the postal system,  there was an interactive exhibit on postal crime  where you can learn how to catch a mail criminal. There was also a  smaller gallery dedicated to mail and the military. The rest of museum is devoted to stamps.

The museum has the largest collection of stamps I have ever seen, to say that its just a large collection would be an understatement, the collection is gigantic, enormous, immense. There was one exhibit that related stamps and the alphabet , another for USA and international stamps, and finally, an ever changing exhibits gallery; when we visited, the items on display were from the Hindenburg and Titanic, entitled “Fire and Ice: Hindenburg and Titanic”. Of the three stamp exhibits, I found the Hindenburg and Titanic exhibit to be the most interesting, as they were other things to marvel at, besides stamps. (I’m just not that into stamps.)

Last, but not least, (it should’ve been first according to the floor guide) was the atrium, where all different types of mail vehicles are on display. It was my favorite part of the museum, I like the mash up of the different types of vehicles from different eras together.

The National Postal Museum took us about an hour and a half to go through, but one can easily spend a longer time here; especially if you are enthusiastic about stamps, then you can spend forever at the museum, it has panels and panels of stamps. The National Postal Museum is a nice museum, well organized, not too crowded and has plenty to see. I enjoyed my visit, however when I think of the museum, all I can remember is that it has a lot of stamps. So if you really like stamps, or enjoy free museums, or would like to visit a Smithsonian museum without being pushed around, visit the National Postal Museum.