40-4-Steve: Walt Disney Museum

Next up on the 40-4-Steve birthday challenge: a visit to the Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio of San Francisco!

 

We'd been wanting to visit it for years, but friends who'd gone when it opened said that it wasn't very child-friendly. And they were right. Other than 3 or 4 hands-on displays and some videos, the vast majority of the museum is memorabilia and a lot of reading. It's also important to understand that this is a Walt Disney museum, not a Disney or Disneyland museum. It is arranged in galleries that follow Walt's life, from his ancestry and early childhood through his death. Obviously, the familiar characters and theme parks Disney created are there in the appropriate galleries, but they are not the main focus of the museum.  

That said, we loved it! The beginning of Walt's studio and its focus during war years were especially fascinating. It was really cool seeing his many Oscars, particularly the Honorary Oscar for Snow White with the 7 dwarfed Oscars that accompanied it. Trevor liked seeing the early models for Disneyland and Walt's plans for EPCOT. Our favorite hands-on activity was one where we worked together to create the sound for an early Disney cartoon.

That's 6 items off the list. 34 more to go!