the newseum

There are so many awesome free museums in DC. Someday I will go to all of them! We went to The Newseum last month, which happens to be one of the rare museums in the area that charges admission. It felt kinda silly to be paying for a ticket when right down the street were a million free-to-enter places, but man, it was worth it! It came highly recommended by a few friends, so I was really looking forward to visiting.

The whole museum is about history of news and journalism. It covers a lot of ground! This exhibit features a radio antenna that was on top of one of the World Trade Center buildlings. The whole wall was about 3 stories high and was covered in front pages from newspapers all over the world from 9/12/2001. There's also a movie room showing a mini-documentary about the journalists and photographers who were at Ground Zero that day. Some of it was very difficult to watch but it was all really well done and incredibly moving.

One long hallway is devoted to the that day's front page of dozens of newspapers. I couldn't stop thinking about how long it takes someone to replace the whole wall every single day! It's a beautiful exhibit: one whole side of the hall is a window, looking out onto Pennsylvania Avenue. There's a lovely "promenade deck" along the side of the building with lots of placards comparing Pennsylvania Ave now to various points in the past.

There's also this great walkway called the "First Amendment Walkway" which highlights the five freedoms protected by the first amendment of the Constitution. Chris and I came around the corner and the light was coming through the front of the building just right. I got really excited about this photo!

I also got really excited about the sunset as we left. The gorgeous rainbow mixed with all the historic and important buildings definitely gave me a "I still can't believe we actually live here!" moment. 

I didn't take a ton of photos, but there were so many great exhibits. My favorites was the one on the presidents and their official photographers. I loved the pictures of the presidents with their pets, and so many of the photos seemed intimate, capturing a private, relaxed demeanor that we rarely see from the President. I also really liked the history of printed news, and the gallery of all the Pulitzer prize-winning phtoographs was also amazing. Definitely, definitely hit up the Newseum if you get a chance! We'll be going back for sure.