Our friend Andrea flew down to LA to visit for the weekend. Our first activity was to see the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit at the California Science Center. The exhibit is a seperate admission and one has to get tickets for a particular time. We opted for tickets for 11:15 today. Three senior tickets at about $16 a pop. Oh and don’t forget the $6 convenience fee. What a crock. We printed out the tickets and off we went. Parking was $10. No HP parking available so we had to hike from the back 40.
I feel that we were ripped off. We arrive in line at the appointed time and get in line. 11:15 isn’t the time you get into the exhibit. It’s the time you get to start waiting in line. We waited for about a 1/2 hour before we finally gained admission together with the horde of archeology fans. Paula and Andrea got the audio device for $5 each. I listened to Mozart Piano Concerti on my iPhone.
The exhibit was way over booked. The exhibit will be at the California Science Center until Sept. 7. Once you got inside the exhibit you have to wait in line to view the artifacts. By the way, photography of all kinds was forbidden. I can understand banning flash photography, but no photography is just a brazen attempt to boost gift shop sales. But, I took some pictures anyway. First, I had to look around to see if any museum staffers were in the area. Then sneak a picture on my iPhone.
To be clear, the exhibit is not just the Dead Sea Scrolls. There is many more artifacts recovered from the Qumran region in the Judeaen desert of the West Bank. It probably adds to fullness of the exhibit, especially since I can’t read Hebrew. The actual scrolls were under glass and dimly lit. Very difficult to see.
The artifacts are an interesting view of what life might have been like 3000 years ago. I wondered who had the patience to put the pottery jars back together after being destroyed sometime in the long distant past.
It was an interesting exhibit but our enjoyment was lessened by excessive crowds.
calherewecome 