It’s Always a Good Time to Visit the Yakima Valley Museum

The other day my kid and I had about an hour to kill. We could have just gone home only to leave again in an hour but I asked if they had anything in mind.

They suggested we could always go to the museum.

It didn't catch me off guard as it may some as they've talked about showing interest in returning to the museum.

I used to go about once a year, usually when the doors were open to the public for free during folklife. Later when my kids were born we'd go just to play in the kids play area where they have tables and coloring papers and things of that nature. My kids loved it.

But my kid hasn't been there since they're now a high schooler.

I know they cycle through museum items and have new exhibits often. And it's been long enough that I haven't had time to check out the new remodel so we decided to go for it.

I didn't take a ton of photos but I grabbed a few. Though photos seem welcome, you always get a better experience at the museum just being there and interacting with the exhibits. One of my favorite things to see are these old neon signs. I'm old enough to remember when a few of these were still lit up above businesses down Yakima Avenue.

It was fun to see this shrine dedicated to local celebrities. They had Twin Peaks stuff for Kyle MacLachlan, a few baseball items for Scott Hatteburg and other local baseball players, records, books, and more, all from people from Yakima who made it big for themselves. Fun to see. Who knows, maybe you'll recognize someone and didn't realize they were from Yakima.

You'll also run across stuff like this. It was someone's pencil collection. They had about 10-12 cases of stuff like this. Pens, pencils, all from local businesses across the United States. It's the type of collection items I would have never thought about but once I saw it, I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

If you need a quick thing to do in town, check out the museum. We were only here for maybe 40 minutes which was enough time to see just about everything at a glance but they also have other displays and exhibits including videos you can watch about Mt. St. Helens and more. Neat stuff always.

Get more details at the Yakima Valley Museum website.