WARNING: PICTURE HEAVY POST COMING!!!!!
I only had one day to spend sightseeing in Seattle. I did the obligatory trip to the Pike Place Market and saw them throwing fish and then I had the rest of the afternoon available. I was going to go on a ferry but it was cold, raining and windy (even for Seattle standards). Looking for other things to do, I asked our wonderful group of readers for suggestions before the trip. Here’s one of the replies.
Now the name sounded interesting but I didn’t know if I’d have the time to visit. When I saw that the weather would be bad, I read more about the museum right before my trip. I almost fainted as it looked like I found Geek Nirvana.
Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP)
325 5th Avenue N
Seattle, WA 98109
The museum is a little bit outside of downtown Seattle, right near the Space Needle. I took a $5 UBER ride to get there and when I arrived I thought the building looked familiar. As it turns out, this building was founded in 2000 as the Experience Music Project (I remember watching when that museum opened on MTV, back when they showed music videos and music news).
The Museum of Pop Culture name was adopted in 2016 as the museum’s theme shifted from just music to cover all mediums of pop culture for mega fans everywhere, and I loved every second of it.
Let me say that there was no doubt I was going to visit when I checked the website and I saw that I was able to catch the last weekend of a limited time exhibit, “The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited”
This exhibit, which was an additional $8 over the normal admission price, was worth every penny. They didn’t waste any time giving people what they came there to see. Here’s the first thing you saw when entering.
I mean, that’s not fair. How can you top having Kermit at the entrance. It wasn’t hard as Jim Henson’s influence on pop culture spanned several decades. From Sesame Street:
to The Muppet Show;
Fraggle Rock;
and feature films Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal
I was emotionally exhausted and that was only the first exhibit. I headed onto another area, Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds (which has been extended until May 28, 2018)
They covered the whole Trek Universe from TOS;
to TNG;
DS9:
Voyager;
And even things from Enterprise and all generations of the Star Trek movies like the new Khan costume (minus Benedict Cumberbatch)
They even had a booth where you could record your best James T. Kirk “KKHHHHAAAANNNNN” scream.
If you were wondering how all of Trek fits together, they had a timeline for you.
This is where I need to mention that these exhibits weren’t just rooms filled with memories of my past, as if that wouldn’t be enough. These were museum quality displays giving explanation into context and importance to items they were presenting. There was a story line to follow and it was really interesting just to walk around and read the history behind the things I loved.
If this wasn’t enough Pop Culture overload, when Michael Jackson’s Thriller played on the mega big screen about 100 people stood there and watched the whole thing.
I was only done with less than half of the museum. My brain almost exploded.
From now on, just pictures.
They had an area called Infinite Worlds of Science Fiction.
There was also an area devoted to Fantasy: Worlds of Myth and Magic
and one devoted to horror movies called Scared to Death. Not my forte but I braved it and survived to tell the tale.
This was not all of the exhibits. There’s tons of things I didn’t take pictures of. I already felt like “that tourist” who took pictures of EVERYTHING. There were video exhibits everywhere. You could spend hours (or a whole day if that’s your thing, and it could easily be my thing) and not see everything. I mean come on, this was their loading bay door.
The museum is constantly rotating in new exhibits. This is the next one coming soon, just in time for Infinity War for all you Marvel fans.
I’m so thankful that one of our readers turned me on to this. I probably would have missed it otherwise and kicked myself in the rear for the rest of my life.
I did manage to get one selfie when I was there. How could I help not getting a picture with Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker.
By now, you’ll know if you will give your right arm to visit here or if you’re just, meh. I’m telling you, this was one of the best times I’ve EVER had at a museum.
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