A Museum a Month -- My New Plan

I've got a new goal. The kids and I are going to try to visit a new museum every month. Seriously, there are a ton of great places within my usual route between the house and the library.  They're always on my list of things we're going to get around to one of these days.

Vacations are a totally different thing -- that's when we go to all of the museums and visitor centers and pull over to read signs by the side of the road. It's the places that are closer to home that we forget to make time for.

Earlier this week, Quinn and Leif and I went to the Linn County Historical Museum. The older kids have been there a few times, but the younger ones were too young to remember it.

Guys, I love this place! There are soooo many exhibits and it's not just labeled stuff sitting on shelves. Remember how it took us four hours to watch a fifty-eight minute video about the history of stained glass? Now imagine us in a museum...

It actually only took a couple of hours, but we did a lot more of the activities than I expected to, like packing the miniature covered wagon and building a cabin with Lincoln Logs.  What surprised me most was how intrigued they were by wool carding. Do you think they'd be half as excited about it if I brought my own set of cards down from the sewing room?

There's a whole little turn of the century town set up in what's actually a pretty small museum. The boys were even intrigued by the beauty shop -- because how could you not be fascinated by that permanent wave machine?

There's a doctor's office, and a dentist's office, and a barber shop, and a general store, and a bank...

It's times like this that I'm glad we live in an age where I can come home and find a Youtube video from 1927 explaining how dial telephones work. (It didn't answer the questions about the switchboard, but it was entertaining.)



I've already got a list that'll last us well into next year, but if you can think of great museums or historic sites between Portland and Eugene -- or actually anywhere in Oregon and Washington, let me know!