A day-trip to DC with the Cubs

Today I had the interesting experience of visiting Washington DC with a group of six 10-year old Cub Scouts. Our destination -- the Building Museum. Oh, you've never heard of the Building Museum? You're not alone. It is a beautiful building, but not much of a museum, in my opinion.

The museum is housed in an ornate 19th century structure typical of government buildings in DC from that era. Inside is a massive central lobby that rises four stories to the vaulted roof and its skylights. The lobby is surrounded by balconies which provide access to rooms along the perimeter of the building. Astonishingly huge stone columns support the roof and arches. I wondered what great and holy work of government could have inspired the construction of such an impressive edifice over 100 years ago. Can you believe it, the building was designed and built to house the offices of the US Pension Bureau!

Well, today it is "The Building Museum."

Caleb's den visited the museum because it was host today for a special kid-oriented exhibition on Engineering. There were booths all throughout the lobby manned by volunteers from professional engineering and scientific organizations. At these booths, kids were given the opportunity to perform simple experiments that illustrated scientific principles of one sort or another. It was a little bit exhausting, but interesting. I learned, or re-learned, a few things myself. The boys were mostly okay with the whole adventure. I think they probably liked the "Lego Room" the best. This simple exhibit consisted of a small auditorium, whose carpeted floor was strewn with thousands upon thousands of legos. The kids could sit on the floor and build lego creations with a virtually unlimited and diversified supply of lego bricks. For some 10-year old boys, it just doesn't get any better than this. (Actually, some 40+ year-old boys enjoyed it too.)
If you actually want to learn something about the Building Museum here's the link:
http://www.nbm.org/