Near, Far, Wherever You Are: Titanic Exhibit at the National Geographic Museum

When mom and I headed down to Farragut Square last week to check out some street art, we had planned on breaking dad out of his office for a bit and so we showed up a little early.  Only to find that he was stuck on an endless string of conference calls.  We had about an hour and a half to kill and there's not much right around the square for kids to do (unless, you know, you want to like go to the White House).  But thanks to our good buds over at Kaleidoscoping Chaos, we remembered that Nat Geo had an exhibit honoring the 100 year anniversary of the Titanic's demise.  We didn't know much about it and our last trip to the museum wasn't a huge success, but we decided to give it a whirl.

And although a lot of the exhibit's features would better suit older children, I still had a blast.  The exhibit incorporates a lot of technology, which is fitting given how the exploration of the wreck has evolved with the leaps and bounds of technology development (and James Cameron's obsession with both).  And even though I didn't "get" all of the technology, it was fun and interesting for me.  I was enthralled by what was essentially a gigantic iPad (there are also real iPads in the exhibit) that had some "games" to play -- we spent a lot of time searching an image of the real wreck and looking for treasure (and finding it where it would really be found on the ocean floor).  I also loved the projected image of the wrecked deck that morphed into what it looked like pre-crash when you stepped on (or RAN across) it.  I ran back and forth for a good 15 minutes on that thing.  So cool.

And we spent some quality time in the gift store (which has TONS of cool gifts for kids if you are ever in need of a different idea), but shockingly no money.  Our powers of persuasion in gift shops seem to be waning -- mom is now well past caring what others think when we throw ourselves on the floor claiming we are unloved because she won't buy us whatever object is firmly grasped in our hands (and which we likely cannot explain for what we'd even use it).  She may have won that battle, but I'm sure we'll win the war.

The Nat Geo Museum is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily.  Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors, and free for kids under 5.  The Titanic exhibit is there through July 8th.

searching for treasure

treasure found! 

i tried to convince mom that we needed these hats by insisting we put them on, take a picture, and send it to daddy.  alas, we have no lion hats.