Get Me the Hell Out of Here

Growing up, my parents took us to museums and classical concerts more times than I can remember. My favorite museum - by far - was the Exhibit Museum of Natural History at the University of Michigan.

I loved the wildlife exhibits, the birch canoe, and the planetarium, but the dinosaurs were my favorite. They were enormous and scary, exciting and interesting. We visited there at least once a month. I loved that place so much that I started working there at the start of my sophomore year of college and continued until a few days before I moved to Washington.

I still sneak into the National Museum of Natural History every so often, usually before the public is admitted, just to see those dinosaurs, so I knew that I would want to visit the Natural History Museum here in London.

It's an absolutely beautiful building, with stone animals perched atop the ledges and above the windows and arches. It looks like a castle:

The admittance line was astronomically long, and we queued for thirty minutes - just to get in! At one point, we felt like we were at Cedar Point, waiting for The Magnum:

Once we got inside, and after the bag check, we were then corralled into yet another queue. I mean, I know that the dinosaurs are popular, but... really?

Once we got in, triceratops greeted us impressively:

This was a small carnivore (can't remember which), but the main reason for the picture was because it looked like he was skateboarding above the crowds:

I was disappointed to be corralled through the entire exhibit, being prodded to move along. The signage was minimal and not at all comprehensive. Their specimens were lacking in so many ways: they were hung from above and the visitor passed them on a suspended catwalk. This placed them at eye level and completely minimized their enormity. They seemed small and, well... boring.

It was SO CROWDED that I started to feel a little claustrophobic and extremely annoyed. I finally turned to K-10 and said something I never thought I'd say in a museum:

"Get me the hell out of here."

I mean, I'm glad that we went, but I felt a little ripped off after waiting for so long, and it was impossible to even enjoy (or read) the text on the exhibits.

Oh, and here's the dinosaur queue from above. It was insane:

Yikes!