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The Children's Museum of Indianapolis

Most museums are closed on Monday. I know this because I looked at the websites for several of them, including the art museums at Notre Dame and DePauw. The Children's Museum is also closed on Mondays. However, this last Monday was not an ordinary one. It was also Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (or Civil Rights Day - I never know what the official name is), so not only was the museum open, it was FREE! I don't think that's what Dr. King had in mind when he declared "Free at last!" but as poor grad students, we certainly appreciated the word, free. Apparently, so did the cash-strapped parents of the greater Indianapolis area who also heard the ring of "free" and brought their children to the museum. I can't blame them. It's awesome, and normally kind of on the pricey side. Other than about a million children running free from their parents, Erica, Cristen, and I also saw some pretty fascinating things.

First off, there was this clock. I think I overheard the clock smock-bedecked tour guide say it was the fourth largest one in the world! We had heard that the best time to view the clock was at the top of the hour, so we just took a picture when we first got there and synchronized our watches for our return visit.

We were also really excited to see the Fireworks of Glass exhibit by Dale Chihuly. We saw the tower, and at first I was a little disappointed. I mean, it was dusty, and I thought that was all there was, but then we discovered the glass ceiling (not in the feminist sense, although we were already familiar with that) and the glass garden. Here's one shot of the tower, but I'm going to save my myriad of other pictures for another entry.

Of course, there was a train exhibit, complete with tiny little houses. It reminds me of the Donald Duck cartoon where Chip and Dale live in the little models. I've always wanted to do that.

Here is one of the many stroller lots full to capacity.

And there was a hall of mirrors leading into a psychedelic room. I'm not sure what it was supposed to teach kids.

It would be great to be a kid again and come here to climb all over things. Even though the kids were screaming and running all around, sometimes they just looked so cute as they played. We couldn't help but take pictures, especially of this adorable little girl in a kid-scaled soda shop.

Sometimes I feel strange taking pictures of other people's children, but then I see something like this, and I feel less weird.

The line for the carousel was impossibly long. We had to satisfy our nostalgia with mere pictures.

There were snowflakes in the lobby. Very large ones.

But one of my favorites were the dollhouse rooms. I still really want a dollhouse.

Here's another picture of the Chihuly tower from the top floor of the museum.

You could also travel around the world and see how people from all different cultures live their lives.

Here are some folk scenes:

Wait, wait... step back. Let's look a little closer at that last one. Who is that in the frame behind the man who appears to be dancing? Is it possible? What a strange coincidence - it's Martin Luther King Jr! I wonder if they changed the little scene just for that day or if he is there permanently.

Museums can be difficult, especially when dealing with culture. How do you determine which aspects of a culture will be represented? What one snapshot or genre scene will be used to characterize a complex and diverse people? That's always an issue with exhibits like those above, but here we come to one that, frankly, made us all uncomfortable. Maybe it's our academic training that has made us so sensitive to these issues, but still... Story Avenue appeared to encapsulate all the negative stereotypes of African Americans we are trained to spot.

I didn't even get a picture of the beat up car in the alley.

But at least they got the dinosaur exhibit right. Or at least, to my untrained eye it seemed just fine. Mostly, I liked the sky. They took a cue from Caesar's Palace and created a sky that changes from night to morning, with sound effects of thunder and rain.

Here are some dinosaurs!

I love us. We are just too awesome!

Barbie is amazing. She does everything, including paleontology.

And finally, there's nothing cuter than kids dressing up like dinosaurs and nesting. Aww...