The Carnegie Natural History museum was a very pleasurable visit with the unexpected peaks/highlights. We, who live in Washington, D.C. , are a bit spoiled because we have the Smithsonian institution with all its glory. Rarely any similar museum is able to match any component of the Smithsonian because the Smithsonian always appears to be No 1. Yes, Chicago has the dinosaurs Sue and little Walters in Baltimore have the neat part about the Ethiopian art history but Pittsburgh Carnegie?!
The Carnegie Natural History museum had good parts, interesting and well put together but I will go on the limb to say that the Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems was amazing and put better together then the Smithsonian Museum Natural History. The kids are just out of control, seeking the parents' attention to so many colorful and strange looking minerals and rocks, but that just raises the level of the excitement when you are in the Mineral Hall. In life it is often, "it is not what you say but how you say it, and Carnegie museum tells the story in wonderful and sort of glamorous way. You feel like you are in some Bruce Lee movie and Versailles with all the mirrors and glass around you but your eyes are always stapled to previously hidden materials from the Earth.
If, and when I am back to Pittsburgh, I will most certainly go to the Carnegie Natural History Mineral Hall again.