National Archives

Date of Visit: October 23, 2014

The main reason we visited the National Archives was because we had thought there was a War of 1812 exhibit there closing soon. Apparently, we were wrong or somehow we totally missed it. However, in the half a dozen times I have visited the Archives I have always found there is great temporary exhibit in the Lawrence F. O'Brien Gallery and the current one definitely did not disappoint us.

The exhibit is called  "Making Their Mark: Stories Through Signatures." It features a variety of items that feature signatures including sports items given to Presidents (Lakers jersey and Giants World Series bat), letters to Presidents from other famous people (Johnny Cash, etc.), and laws. There is also an interesting part about electronic signatures and duplication machines.

Of course, you cannot go to the Archives and not also go through the Rotunda, which is wheelchair accessible through the exit. Seeing the original Declaration of Independence and Constitution is nice; but Mik's favorite part is actually the murals. Also, he was much more impressed by the Declaration of Independence being engraved inside the elevator doors and he has declared them his new favorite elevator doors (so I guess he's solved his dilemma with the Huntsville Airport elevator ranking).

Destination Info:
National Archives
Constitution Ave NW (between 7th & 9th Avenue)
Washington, DC

National Air & Space Museum: Hawaii by Air Exhibit

Date of Visit: September 17, 2014

Hawaii by Air is a small temporary exhibit on the west end of first floor right outside the ride simulators. While small, it does provide a good overview to aviation history as it relates to Hawaii with particular focus on early flights from the mainland and the establishment of inter-island service.

I thought it was interesting how at several points it gave info on where to see examples of aircrafts elsewhere in the museum or other related artifacts at other Smithsonian museums such as a Hawaiian boat over at the National Museum of the American Indian.

Mik's favorite part was the diagrams that showed the layouts of the luxury passenger planes, such as Pan Am's clippers.

Accessibility Notes

• The museum's exterior is currently under renovation and the ramp entrance is on the west end of the building on Jefferson Drive (National Mall side of building).
• Check out the museum's Visitors with Disabilities page on their website for info on available accommodations and how to request accommodations if needed.
• Closest Metro stop is L'Enfant Plaza, which is served by the Blue, Orange, Silver, Yellow, and Green. Elevator/escalator outage info can be found here.

Destination Info:

National Air & Space Museum
Independence Ave & 6th St SW
Washington, DC

Once There Were Billions exhibit at National Museum of Natural History

 Date of Visit: September 5, 2014

"Once There Were Billions: Vanished Birds of North America" is an exhibit about some of the birds that have gone extinct from North America including the great auk and passenger pigeons. Mik found it interesting; but he ended up more impressed by the Birds of D.C. exhibit on the way to the elevators and he was impressed to see the different birds that can be seen around here. I had seen it before; but I forgot he has never been to this museum other than the IMAX and also hasn't been to the Field Museum.

Destination Info:

National Museum of Natural History
10th St and Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC

Accessibility Note: The accessible entrance to the museum is on the Constitution Avenue side of the building. The Smithsonian Metro is usually recommended for the museum; but we find Federal Triangle (Blue, Orange, Silver) and Archives (Yellow, Green) more convenient since the elevator exit for Smithsonian is on opposite side of the National Mall.

Wilderness Forever exhibit at National Museum of Natural History

Date of Visit: September 5, 2014

This was the exhibit we came to the museum to see today; and if we were not looking for it, we easily could of missed it because there is just a little sign pointing to it being down the hall past the gem gift shop.

"Wilderness Forever: 50 Years of Protecting America's Wild Places" features photos of American wilderness areas taken by professionals, amateurs, and students. The exhibit honors the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act.

Besides the photos, there are also interactive screens to learn more about the wilderness areas in the United States. Our favorite part, though, was the movie that gave some history on the Wilderness Act and those behind it.

Destination Info:

National Museum of Natural History
10th St and Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC

Accessibility Note: The accessible entrance to the museum is on the Constitution Avenue side of the building. The Smithsonian Metro is usually recommended for the museum; but we find Federal Triangle (Blue, Orange, Silver) and Archives (Yellow, Green) more convenient since the elevator exit for Smithsonian is on opposite side of the National Mall.

Titan Missile Museum

Date of Visit: May 3, 2014

Despite living in Tucson for almost 20 years the Titan Missile Museum was one of the few places neither Mik or I had been to before.  Considering Mik's fascination with military history it is rather surprising we never even thought about visiting before.

We arrived a few minutes after the noon tour began and decided to join it and miss a few minutes of the movie rather than wait for the next tour at 1 p.m.  The movie is interesting about the history of the silo and launch center, but I don't feel we missed out on anything since you get some plus more info while touring the silo and the tour guides seem to be quite capable of fielding questions.

After the movie ended, the tour heads outside to go down to the launch center.  Before heading down we stopped to hear them sound the siren, which was not a regular thing.  It is very loud, but surprisingly Mik didn't freak out too much, although that was mainly because they gave a clear warning that it was happening.

There are 55 steps down to the entrance of the control center and for those that cannot do stairs they use what originally was more for freight use.  When going up and down the tour guide made sure we knew when the bell was going to sound for the closing and opening above the elevator shaft. The sound was really nothing after the siren, but still Mik can be sensitive to sound and really appreciated having warning.

The rest of the tour is all on the same level and involves going through the blast doors, doing a simulated launch in the control center, and going over to see the Titan II Missile in the silo.  We found the tour to be interesting.  The only part Mik did not really like was the bumpy metal ground in the hallway down to the missile silo, but his comment was just that he was glad he did not have that flooring in his house.

Back up top the tour ends, but you can then wander around up top before heading back out through the museum building.  Mik did not want to spend too much time wandering around in that he did not want us to stop in read every sign, which I agreed was unnecessary with the tour giving all that info already.  Walking over to the top of the silo and going up the platform they have built over it to allow you to look down at the missile was worthwhile.

Destination Info:
Titan Missile Museum
1580 W Duval Mine Rd
Sahuarita, Arizona

Swope's Cars of Yesteryear Museum

Date of Visit: April 24, 2014

Mik loves car museums, so when I spotted a sign for one in Kentucky on the way to Chicago he was disappointed I had not woken him up to ask if he wanted to stop.  To be fair, he had already said no to my several other suggestions (Country Music Hall of Fame, Railroad museums and Bass Pro Shop) including getting in trouble for waking him up to ask.  We had already planned to hit the Lane Auto Museum in Nashville on the way home, since it was not open on the day we were driving to Chicago, hence why we did not stop on the way, but we first ended up making sure we found the one in Kentucky.

The Swopes Cars of Yesteryear Museum features cars from the 1910s to 1970s.  Mik enjoyed rolling through the showroom layout.  It is mostly just the cars, but each has a good story about it and/or the model on the sign by it.  There is also some other things on display on behind the cars, but it is too tight for a wheelchair to be able to roll between the cars to get back to most of it.  Not that Mik cared, though, as he mostly liked just looking at the cars.

With all the road work related traffic on I-65 we did not make it to the Nashville one, but we were glad we found this one to check out and Nashville is an easy day trip from Huntsville, so hopefully we will get around to going there sometime soon.

Destination Info:
Swope's Cars of Yesteryear Museum
1100 North Dixie Ave
Elizabethtown, KY 42701

New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum

Date of Visit: May 25, 2012

This first stop on our trip was unplanned.  After we left Tucson early, I decided to look at what places had National Park stamps and were pretty much on our route.  The New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum ended up being just a few miles out of the way and it has El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail stamp.


It ended up being a pretty interesting museum to visit, although we did not take the time to see it all.  Of what we saw, the New Mexico Centennial exhibit was the most interesting.  Mik and I had fun doing the scavenger hunt in that exhibit and then we used the 10% off from doing it to get some yummy New Mexico grown pistachios in the gift shop.

We looked at the Heritage Gallery a little and the John Deere exhibit.  We certainly could have spent more time there, especially since we did not even venture outside to see the animal exhibits.  However, we still wanted to get the Chamizal National Monument even though it technically was on the plan for the way home.

Destination Info:
New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum
4100 Dripping Springs Road
Las Cruces, New Mexico 88011

Art of Video Games Exhibit at Smithsonian American Art Museum

Date of Visit: March 26, 2012

Mik was excited to go see the Art of Video Games Exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (see our accessibility review and more general visit recap from last year here).  The exhibit was pretty interesting showing video footage of a variety of games to illustrate the way graphic art has changed in video games over time.  Mik especially liked the area that showed the different game console systems along with example footage from four different games per system.

Another cool part of the exhibit is that there are some giant screen gaming stations that you can play.  There are a few different games to play from different systems, although the only one I can remember off the top of my head is Pac-Man because we actually tried that one.  Mik could reach and use the controls fine, but he quickly tired of it because he stunk at it.

Overall an awesome exhibit and worth checking out even though we did not want to see anything else at the museum that day.  It was definitely a convenient stop on the way back to the hotel after Ford's Theater.

Destination Info:
Smithsonian American Art Museum (same building as National Portrait Gallery)
Between G St and F St and 7th and 8th St
Washington, DC

U.S. Navy Memorial Heritage Center

Date of Visit: March 26, 2012

We have been to the U.S. Navy Memorial several times, but somehow never noticed that there was a U.S. Navy Memorial Heritage Center next to it.  The only reason I knew to look for it this time was that there is supposedly a National Park Passport Stamp for the memorial at the Heritage Center Bookstore.  We did not find it, but then again we did not ask about it and the whole place seemed to be in a major overhaul mode.  It must be there, though, as the day after we visited it the last confirmation date for the stamp in the Park Stamps database.

On the level you enter the U.S. Navy Memorial Heritage Center there is not much other than a ship model.  There is an elevator and stairs down to the exhibit space and bookstore/gift shop.  There was not really much to see, as they were taking stuff down and had ladders and such in a big part of the area.  The bookstore had the displays of items so close together that Mik could not get his wheelchair through most of it.


Overall we wish we had skipped the U.S. Navy Memorial Heritage Center.  Not that it does not have potential to be an interesting stop, but they were actively dismantling exhibits and there was clutter of coat racks in the elevator hallway and such.  The U.S. President's Room was interesting, but really it was not worth the visit at this time.  Now if there was not exhibit turnover going on it would be a great stop other than Mik did not like that the buttons to select the floor you wanted to go to where at about his eye level.

Destination Info:
U.S. Navy Memorial Heritage Center
701 Navy Memorial
Washington, D.C.

National Building Museum

Date of Visit: March 23, 2011

The National Building Museum is one of the non-Smithsonian Museums I discovered when I spent the semester at American University in 2006.  I finally got around to taking Mik to it on this trip by squeezing it in the morning on the day we flew out of DC.  Mik really enjoyed the exhibits, especially since they had a temporary LEGO exhibit, but the accessibility was not very good.

The museum is housed in an old building, so no faulting it that you can only go in and out on one side (G Street entrance).  At least they clearly have signs pointing you around the building to the side with a ramp.  Also, the doors in have buttons to operate them.

The problem comes when you get into the museum and every single exhibit is in separate areas that have doors you have to open to get into them.  Now the doors are a good thing because groups of kids were eating lunch in the Great Hall (Grover Cleveland hosted his Inaugural Ball here when it was the Pension Building) and the area gets loud.  The closed doors keep the exhibits quiet.  However, they do not have buttons, so you have to open them, hold them open, and push through.  Not too big a deal for me, as I am used to pushing Mik in similar situations, but the doors are not light and on the second level it is worse.

On the second level the exhibits are not level with the hallway, so there are little ramps to even it out.  Well, that meant I had to open the door, hold it open, and push Mik up the ramp and in.  Conceptually, it did not seem any harder than the first floor, but the ramps are not quite flush with the exhibit floors.  This was only weeks into Mik having a Quickie Q7 wheelchair and I had not yet fully come to realize the front wheels suck and any little bump can get them stuck wanting to turn to go along the crack/bump and not over.  Basically, they act like a Roomba.  Anyways, that meant holding door open, tilting Mik back to have front wheels up, and into room.  Not quite so easy, especially since Mik easily freaks out when front wheels are off ground even when I have two hands on chair.

Most exhibit areas did have a docent in them wandering around for if you had questions and such.  In one of the areas, the docent was really friendly and while she did not see us coming in, on the way out of the exhibit she came over and held the door open.  The LEGO exhibit was on second floor, but they had doors open and manned by ticket checker, since it was a paid exhibit.  It still had issue of not quite being level with hallway floor, though.

The building has elevators on both long sides of the Great Hall.

Photos by Kjersti
Text by Kjersti with Mik's wheelchair accessibility input

Destination Info:
National Building Museum
401 F St NW
Washington, DC 20001

National Museum of American History

Date of Visit: March 22, 2011

The National Museum of American History is my all time favorite DC museum and not just because they have a Dumbo ride vehicle as one of the landmark display items.  There is a lot to see the museum, so we just focused on going through a few of the exhibits we really wanted to see.  We skipped the Star Spangled Banner, as that is the only exhibit Mik remembers seeing when we went during the Ballpark road trip in 2009 and it was too crowded to see anything else.



The main area we saw was the Transportation exhibits.  Mik really enjoyed the On the Water exhibit and seeing the different miniature boat models.  He also loved the touch screens he could roll up to and select to hear different things to be read to him.  The American on the Move exhibit is also fun including rolling into the CTA car that makes it seem like you are actually riding with people to work in Chicago.



We really wanted to see the Gunboat Philadelphia, but either the wheelchair lift up to the viewing platform sucks or we are unlucky in that it was also out when we visited in 2009 and was out again on our March 2011 trip.  You can see the front of the boat from the exhibit entrance, but the majority of the artifacts and good viewing of the gunboat is up a few steps on a raised viewing platform.  Mik loves boats and maritime history, so it really annoys him that he keeps missing out on really seeing the exhibit because it has steps and a broken lift.

Photos by Kjersti
Text by Kjersti with Mik's wheelchair accessibility input

Destination Info:
National Museum of American History
1400 Constitution Ave NW
Washington DC

National Portrait Gallery

Date of Visit: March 21, 2011


The National Portrait Gallery is in the same building as the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, but that does not make it a small museum, but rather it is two big museums together in one huge building.  Even though it is just paintings to look at, it is a pretty daunting museum.  We mainly went here to get lunch from the cafe and eat it in the nice covered Pavillion area, but we also explored a few parts of the museum.

The accessible entrance to this museum is on the north side of the building.  There are long ramps on the side of the steps to get up to the entrance.  There are automatic doors to enter the building.  The same set is for going in and out, as they are designed to swing both ways, so that depending on what side you press the button they swing away from you.

The main area we went through was the Presidential Portrait Gallery.  Mik liked the spaciousness of the gallery and tried to roll around it away from me because he wanted to see other parts.  He did not like the carpet of the gallery that made rolling around harder, especially since he is never encounters carpets in his normal routines.  I noticed it was a little tougher to push him on the carpet than the rest of the museum, but it is not that bad.

The museum is in the Old Patent building and one of the most interesting exhibits is this little exhibit off the coat room that is easy to miss.  It has some information on the building's history including it hosting one of Lincoln's Inaugural balls.



The mezzanine exhibits on the third floor include a sports Champions exhibit.  I thought Mik would love this area being a sports fan, but he ended up hating it because the elevator to go up to it was barely larger than the wheelchair, moved slowly, and made some noise.  You have to be able to go in forward and then roll backwards out.  There was barely room for me to ride with Mik.  I cannot remember if the button was automatic like most Metro ones are or if you had to press it to go once inside, but I sure hope not as you cannot turn around and would have to hit it as you enter and hopefully the doors do not close if you roll in and forget to hit button.  Really could be a freaky experience as if it did get stuck you cannot reach the buttons.  The exhibit is quite small, so it is not like you miss much not going up there.  The other side of the mezzanine uses a big elevator, so not the same problems.

Photos by Kjersti
Text by Kjersti with Mik's wheelchair accessibility input

Destination Info:
National Portrait Gallery
Between G St and F St and 7th and 8th St
Washington, DC

National Crime and Punishment Museum

Date of Visit: March 21, 2011


The National Crime and Punishment Museum is one of the expensive paid admission DC museums that normally I would not even think of going to with so many free museums to explore instead in D.C.  We got a Groupon deal, though, so it did not cost much.  After seeing this museum, it is not bad, although perhaps not quite worth the high admission price, as it still is not that big.


Accessibility wise the museum is pretty good.  You do end up doing some odd backtracking and such to get back to the elevator to go between floors sometimes, but they give you a paper explaining how to navigate through the museum if you need the elevator between levels.  We got one automatically because they noticed the wheelchair, but we ended up having to help a person figure out how to get out of the museum because they could not do stairs.  If it is not obvious you cannot do stairs, just ask for the elevator guide through the museum when you purchase your tickets.


Mik really enjoyed the National Crime and Punishment Museum.  The CSI Experience in the basement is kind of cool, although a lot of the stuff did not seem to work, was not well explained, or it was at a level that did not work for Mik.  In the booking area it was cool that you could get your fingerprint scanned and a card printed out with it as a souvenir of your visit.  Mik had a little trouble with this as the scanner is stationary and you have to roll up sideways.  Would have been better if it was on a table that had room for the chair to roll under.

Photos by Kjersti
Text by Kjersti with Mik's wheelchair accessibility input

Destination Info:
National Crime and Punishment Museum
575 7th St
Washington, DC 20004

Madame Tussaud's Washington D.C.

Date of Visit: March 21, 2011

In my opinion Madame Tussaud's Washington D.C. is not worth the full price, but I have enjoyed going for reduced price twice.  The first time was for like $5 when I went the day it opened and I lived in D.C. area.  This time I got the tickets for $6 each from a Groupon deal.

Getting into Madame Tussaud's is odd with a wheelchair, but the staff was friendly.  Note that the entrance to the main entrance/ticketing does not have an automatic door.  After you get your tickets, you go back out the main entrance and then around the corner up to the second set of doors, which are actually the museum entrance.  Staff let us in here, so the door was not a problem at this point.  Then you take an elevator down to get to the museum and later back up to get out the way you came in.



Madame Tussaud's D.C. is a lot of fun, especially if you are into the President's, as it has a wax figure for each U.S. President as the main attraction.  It is cool that you can go up to them and take pictures with them.  For the most part it is very accessible, too, although a few of the wax figures were hard or impossible for Mik to roll right up to, such as George Washington in the boat crossing the Delaware.  Mik still enjoyed it all, though.

Mik liked reading the facts about each President, although I did not like that they sometimes had certain props or settings for the Presidents and then did not explain the situation.  For example, FDR is shown doing the fireside chats, but no explanation.  Not that I really expect that much history info from this type of museum, though.



The little interactive aspects were also fun.  Mik got shackled up like a slave in the Civil War area.  I made him do it to see if he could reach them in his wheelchair, but  he found it interesting after he started doing it.  Unfortunately, in the same area he was foiled in wanting to take a picture next to Abraham Lincoln because there is a chair next to Lincoln for you to take a picture as if in the box with him at Ford's Theater, so did not really work out right in a wheelchair.



It was also fun to flip the portraits to answer questions about what President was being described, however, Mik could not reach the top row.  This was actually quite funny because the top row had one about what handicapped President was the White House remodeled for and a person in a wheelchair would not be able to flip it open to read more.  I guess they just assume you should know if you are in a wheelchair.



Mik's absolute favorite part was pushing the button in the war area that asked could you push the button to start a World War.  It was hard for him to reach it and I did not think he would get it without my help stretching his arm out, but he was determined and after about five minutes he got it.



The war area also included a sandbag area that I made Mik go into and wear the helmet.  He did not like that part, but the wheelchair did fit in there.  Mainly, he did not like the heavy helmet.

Neither of us cared for the celebrity area, especially since we did not have a clue who most of them were and several did not seem to even have signs to tell you if you were clueless like us.

Photos by Kjersti and Mik
Text by Kjersti with Mik's wheelchair accessibility input

Destination Info:
Madame Tussaud's Washington D.C.
1001 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20004

National Museum of American History

Starting today at the National Museum of American History. We might also hit the Natural History Museum.

Sent from my iPhone

San Diego Model Railroad Museum

Date of Visit: February 25, 2011

After visiting the San Diego Automotive Museum, we walked over to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, which is also in Balboa Park.  It was kind of cool to see the model trains, but Mik did not like it at all.  He had several complaints related to the accessibility.

For one, he did not like that they have railroad tie looking plaques in the middle of the walkway through the museum.  It made it bumpy to roll on it and since it was narrow one wheel would be on it and the other not, yet there was not enough room to either side to totally avoid it in most parts.  That was a minor complaint, though, as it still a cool feature.

The more major issue is that most of the exhibits were too high to be seen from his wheelchair.  I get they cannot be too low for the people building them to work on them, but one of them were so high that even Dad could not really see it without going up the step areas (I think it was the Tehachapi Pass one).

At least the Toy Train Gallery is in a separate room that the ramp goes down into, so you started at a high enough point to view everything.  However, when we went all the way down into the room it got kind of hard for Mik to see much.  This room, though, also had windows overlooking it from the main pathway, so it could be enjoyed from a wheelchair pretty well.

He also did not like that we started with the path to the left of the entrance and as we followed it up we ended up at a dead end of stairs.  There is another exhibit continuing on from there, but it is not open yet.  Basically, you have to backtrack through that path to then go do the other area.  Of course, this is the path that leads to the separate room that was the only worthwhile part of the museum to Mik.

The main area to the right of entrance/bottom of stairs from top path has a few different train models.  They were not as high as the main one on the first path we went on.  One of them (Pacific Desert Line?) was actually low enough he could see most of it, but by the time we got there he was frustrated (and ready for lunch!), so he did not really care.

Photos by Kjersti
Text by Kjersti with Mik's wheelchair accessibility input

Destination Info:
San Diego Model Railroad Museum
1649 El Prado
San Diego, CA 92101