Underexposed Museums worth the Visit

People who travel in part because of the ready supply of cheap traveldeals, such as cheapairplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, and cheap vacation packagesshould consider doing a little research on their destinations beforearriving. Sometimes relatively unknownmuseums in the area have much to offer.

The following are lesser known museums recommended byChristina Ianzito:

• TheComputer History Museum in Mountain View, California offers stimulatinginteractive exhibits and many cool (low and high) tech artifacts, ranging froman abacus to a massive early mainframe to the video game Pong.

• TheNational World War 1 Museum in Kansas City, Missouri has an entrance wherevisitors cross a glass bridge above a symbolic field of 9,000 poppies, each representing1,000 people killed during the War to End All Wars. Guests can find replicas of life sizetrenches, dramatic firsthand battle accounts, and an FT-17 Tank battered byGerman artillery.

• TheLower East Side Tenement Museum in New York can be found in a five story brickbuilding at 97 Orchard Street. Herevisitors are provided an eye opening look at an immigrants day to dayexperience in America. Costumedinterpreters in authentically restored apartments stand in for residents fromaround the world who lived in this crowded tenement from 1863 through the1930s. Most living there during theearly years had no access to running water or electricity.

• TheTinkertown Museum in Sandia Park, New Mexico provides a folk art environmentthat includes a massive collection of carved wood figures, mechanized dioramas,and funk Americana. It is just a halfhour drive from Albuquerque and is a weirdly compelling must see roadsideattraction.

• TheSpark Museum of Electrical Invention in Bellingham, Washington has a light bulbmade by Thomas Edison, antique radios, vacuum tubes, telegraphs, a staticelectricity laboratory and a replica of the Titanic radio room. Its most popular attraction is the LightningCage, a screened metal ball which visitors sit in while a Teslacoil bombardsthem with bolts of electricity.

• TheTitan Missile Museum in Sahuarita, Arizona can be entered through a concretereinforced belly of the atomic missile launch base. Inside visitors can view a decommissionedintercontinental ballistic missile in its silo. Guests are sometimes offered the chance to turn the actual key that oncewould have resulted in mutually assured destruction.

• TheGilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan is a key stop for autoenthusiasts and nostalgia trippers. Themuseum is home to 400 cars and motorcycles, including rarities like the 1911Stanley Steamer, a re-created 1930 service station, a London double-decker bus,and an authentic 1941 diner.