The National Museum of American History recently reopened after a renovation and I went downtown to check it out the other day when it wasn't crawling with people like cockroaches coming out of the walls. It's an odd museum now. The new open design is hip and modern but it seems there's very little in the way of exhibits now. Other than the addition of the famous portrait by the bathrooms, it appears half the stuff that was formerly in there got boxed up and put in a storage space somewhere. Now there's just not a lot of stuff. It's great if you like really clean and empty spaces, but if you're going to see prime examples of our Nation's History, you've got the choice of a couple of little alcoves filled with half the First Ladies dresses that formerly were in there (Where's Jackie Kennedy's? How is that exhibit complete without her?) and Kermit and the Ruby Slippers.

I'm hoping that they're still working on the renovations and will be filling all the empty space with stuff that's actually more interesting to look at than the Exit sign. Although The Caterpillar enjoys that part of the Museum more than anything else and pointed out every Exit sign in the entire place. If you ever need to make a quick escape from a building, I've got the person to ask.


The bright spot, however, is the Star Spangled Banner exhibit. I love it! After something like six years of renovation to the flag itself, they've created a whole new display around it and it's so much better than before. That is all to explain this photo - the sculpture of the large flag outside the real one (where you can't take photos). It's a poor substitute for the real thing, but a cool sculpture, right?