No - Thank YOU International Museum Day 2009!

I thought Erika was full of crap the other day when she mentioned that we all should hit up some Ottawa museums because Monday, in addition to being Victoria Day, was also International Museum Day. It sounded too made up to be something that people would actually have lobbied to have recognized as a real day. Live and learn, I guess. This years theme: Museums and Tourism, though an explanation as to what this means, exactly, was hard to come by.

So while this could also be BOG Pt. II, it's not titled as such, but is labeled accordingly. I set out on my bike without eating to make sure I had enough time to check everything out. I had destinations, but the route was undetermined. So I headed out towards the new Canadian War Museum (pictured above in artists rendition mode) and the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull - and saved over $20 by going today, thankyouverymuch. Both of them were jam-packed, the Civilization Museum especially. The new war museum was really interesting and well done, but I can't help but feel that they wanted to pander to children a little too much. (A funny example - they had a '24 - CTU' board game in the gift shop. WHY?) They managed to incorporate all the large vehicles they had in storage at Vimy House into their new museum building in the Le Breton Gallery which was neat. Also, the veterans puttering around with canes and scooters talking with visitors and providing personal stories to accompany the artifacts was a nice touch. 

I did leave a note at their suggestion box saying that their effort to address the Dresden bombing controversy by claiming that "this was a source of ongoing controversy" was not quite good enough, and that while ample time was spent describing the heroism of the pilots (which I dont doubt for a minute), no time was spent talking about the consequences and those then and now who have condemned the acts of fire-bombing demanded by Allied Bombing Command.

The Civilization Museum was nice, too. Very well done, but maybe a free day on a holiday Monday was not the best time to hit these places up if I had qualms about crowds. And screaming children...