Picture this - you just fought tooth and nail for a good parking spot, you've got your bag loaded down, you charged your phone on the drive so you can take all the pics, now you're mentally saving that parking location as you focus on getting in the lobby. The start of the adventure is always the same - the mad dash to get there, the hectic scramble to get inside - but as soon as you enter you slow down. Immediately. Or at least I do.
Museums, building tours, and other educational snapshots I can get my hands on are such a draw now. I will admit it's not something I would have always raised my hand for, but now without a doubt I'm up for it.
I would say I've always loved learning so it was inevitable that I would really enjoy museums, but that's so wrong in the best way really. What got me going to museums really was the buildings themselves - the shape, the vibe, the energy of them. Before I really even got going to museums I was watching architecture shows on TV and when I was in the right city I would go hunt down the building so I could take a picture. It started so simple really - and how far down the rabbit hole I've fallen.
I think a big turning point for me and museums was going to the Getty the first time I went to LA. So many firsts wrapped up into the visit and it was incredible!
So, first time in LA, right - the traffic, the buzz to get anywhere, the weather - and then we drive up into this mountain and pull off on a small exit. Since there are no signs it doesn't look right, you know. You'd think such a major museum would be well marked for drivers, but this one isn't. So we pull off on this small exit and pull up to a parking garage jutting out of the side of the mountain and then we wind down, down, down. Now remember I've never been here before, so going up the elevator from the parking garage was all the travel I was really expecting. Boy was I wrong. We get upstairs and standing there, milling about, when I hear this whine start. I look up and see a tram coming down the side of the mountain!
Museums aren't the stuffy old fuddy-duddy crypts you think they are.
Here's where it starts getting really good - we get on and I push my way up to that front window so I can watch the climb and the view opens up, unobstructed. And it does - the view is amazing, and most definitely not the best one. We make it to the top, the doors whoosh open, and then we're dumped out in the middle of this campus - stairs straight ahead of you, water features and sculptures dotted around, gorgeous buildings to your left, your right, dead ahead. It's such a feast for the eyes and all you really do in that first minute is look left, look right, and then do it again.
Do know this - it's worth the time and effort to go there and be prepared to spend more time than you'd think.
And really that dovetails nicely into what I learned as I walked through. That the slow-paced meandering I naturally started doing was the perfect cadence this destination needed. To slow down, to absorb, to appreciate, to really look at where I was and what I was doing. And beyond that, it's just the small fact of getting out and going and doing and moving.
The more museums and tours I do, the more I find myself enjoying not only the small info dumps I'm getting, but just the act of getting out. Every city has this option - LA, Salt Lake City, DC - and every time I find myself enjoying the exploration of a new part of town, learning something new, appreciating beautiful buildings with such history and meaning.
Finding the joy in getting out to these museums to learn, to be part of the world, to move has been so beneficial in how I enjoy a city and the memories I attach to it. Museums aren't the stuffy old fuddy-duddy crypts you think they are. They're small pockets of joy and respite in a busy world.