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| - Note: Spend a day here if you can. We came around 1PM, and by 5PM (closing time), we ran out of time and thus only got to view a portion of the art museum but did get to see all of the natural history museum. Give yourself a good 8 hours if you really want to get the most out of both museums.
Our unplanned day off last week centered around a visit to The Carnegie Museum, a place I hadn't set foot in since I was an impoverished college student 15 plus years ago. What enlightenment and magic I had been missing out on.
Imposing skeletal dragons and behemoths that were once very real loomed over us, enflamed our imaginations, and taught us of an era of titans whose veins ran with cold and warm blood, whose hides were covered with scales and wool, and whose bodies with adorned with the most exquisite, innate weaponry never designed by Man.
Dioramas of ancient people and animals captured dramatic scenes from distant lands and ages long past.
Pictorials of various kinds displayed entomologist Chen Young's 3 decade fascination with the Crane Fly, that most elaborate of insects.
Images from outer space alerted patrons of the dangers of population growth and the inherent responsibility Earthlings have to act as planetary caretakers.
The Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems is a gallery of mirrors and wonderment that gave us but a glimpse of Mother Earth's jewelry cabinet. Geodes exploded with brilliant, multicolored light. Metals of many hues glistened for all to behold.
The Benedum Hall of Geology told tales of stone, fossils, subterranean majesty, and tectonic upheaval.
The art museum, which we only got to skim as I said earlier, was a spectacle of abstraction, detail, beauty, comfort, and incitement. Random colors and words splashed and collided with each other on fields of canvas. Sculptures of iron, clay, and refuse tickled the mind. Each piece challenged perceptions and begged to be individually interpreted and meticulously studied.
Oakland's Carnegie Museums are treasure troves of science and humanity that wholly demand your benefaction and repeated visits. I will not wait another 15 years to return for there is so much left to be enthralled by. Lose yourselves here as we did and continue to do so regularly for as long as you are able. Bring yourselves, your children, your grandchildren...
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