Washington, DC

Last Saturday I went to the opening of the new Ocean Hall at the National Museum of Natural History. At first I was kind of unimpressed, as the beginning part had a lot of cases about classification and biodiversity that reminded me a lot about exhibits I have seen at the Field Museum in Chicago. It is not that it is boring or horribly done, but just that it was too familiar to me and not interesting at first.

As I got deeper into the Ocean Hall I found that there was more to it. First off in the back area there are big screens on the upper parts of the walls. On the screens different ocean scenes play. Be careful where you stand and take them in, though, as others may bump in to you. That said you should also be mindful as you walk through this area not to trip over others, especially little ones, looking up at the screens.

The screens are cool, but what makes me totally give this new exhibit a thumbs up is the polar ocean area. I have a passion for all things Antarctic, so even this small corner made the whole exhibit be worth visiting. The polar ocean exhibit area is actually interestingly done with its side by side (actually top on bottom) comparison of the Arctic and Antarctic regions.

One other thing I liked about the exhibit is the special exhibit area in the back. The current exhibit is on ocean navigation and has some interesting old sea faring stuff.