The MIM--Musical Instrument Museum

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The last day of Minerva's visit, we drove down to Phoenix (where the airport is) and made a stop at the Musical Instrument Museum. Since Minerva and I met when we were violin stand partners back in the fourth grade, and then became best friends through all our high school orchestra classes and events, this was a place we needed to see!

We only had about two and a half hours to see as much as we could; we both agreed that we could have used more time to relax and finish seeing all the exhibits.

We grabbed a map, plotted our plan, and set out. This is one of the most thoughtfully planned museums I've ever been to. We managed to tour most of the exhibits, only missing North America and South America. Exhibits are organzied by region and then by country. Exhibits all have instruments, descriptions, and my favorite, videos.

The videos at the museum are some of the best I've seen and the best planned. Most videos have several clips run together (and explained by another sign below) but each clip is one minute long at the most. This makes it possible to plan your time better and see a wider variety of videos and instruments! (I always hate it when the video that looks most interesting to me is either ten minutes long or only two--I never know! And then I end up missing other things I'd like to see elsehwere because I ran out of time.) Each person can listen to the video on their own headset that they carry around (I guess it works on a radio signal) so the rest of the museum is quiet.

All in all, a wonderful experience at the the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix.

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Photos

Yes, he is supposed to wear the basket
It's to symbolize detachment.

At the MIM
puppets