Some of my most vivid childhood memories were the school fieldtrips we took. I clearly remember visiting the Philadelphia Zoo, Pennsbury Manor, a farm, a cranberry packing facility, and Tyler State Park to name a few.
But of all the fieldtrips we took, the destination that left the strongest impression on me was the Franklin Institute. Located at 20th Street and the Ben Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia's Franklin Institute housed the coolest science museum ever.
From the Fels Planetarium to the 25 foot wide human heart that you could walk thru, no other trip made me feel a sence of wonder about the world around me. If you took a few minutes to look at the Foucault Pendulum, you'de understand that line from the Beatles song, "The fool on the hill sees the sun going down and the eyes in his head see the world spinning 'round."
I went back a couple of times as a young adult, proud to have such a wonderful facility as a part of our local community. I noticed the changes beginning but I looked the other way choosing instead to focus of what was good about the place. In the '90s I learned the reason why they don't use rotund space for exhibits. They rent that space out as an event space/banquet hall.
A couple of years ago, I returned to the Franklin Institute to see the Star Trek exhibit. This exhibit cost something like $20 on top of the regular museum admittance fee. As a die-hard trek fan I have to admit I felt a little ripped off when I learned that many of the items on display were just replicas and never actually used in any episode or movie. Ok so really... whats the difference between a prop and a replica of a prop? They both "work" equally well. No, it was in the assumption that I was paying to see the real thing; the actual props used in the show. Do you know why they use replicas? So that there can be 4 or 40 copies of the same museum show roaming around the country simultaneously to coinside with the release of a movie or whatever.
Well, how would you feel if you just paid $20 to see the King Tut exhibit and after spending 10 minutes looking at his sarcofagus, you find out well, no it doesn't really contain his remains. This is just a replica. Why did you spend the $20 when you stood a better chance of seeing the real thing on TV or the internet? Back to my main point: I left the Star Trek exhibit feeling a little ripped off so I decided to get my moneys worth by taking my time and seeing the rest of the museum that gave me such wonderful childhood memories. I turned into the first open wing I came to. What? I've got no ticket for this? I went up to the next floor. Same thing? Besides the $20 fake star trek exhibit, there were 2 other large exhibits taking up large portions (whole wings) of the museum space. It seems that in all, about 2/3 of the museum space was reserved by these seperate premium exhibits. So what had my $12 general admittance ticket gotten me? I got access to 2 great big gift shops, a cafeteria, a huge statue of Ben Franklin and about 1/4 of the old Museum as I remember it.
The people who are currently managing the Franklin Institute should be ashamed of themselves and how they have turned such an engaging place of scinece into and gouging and enraging cash turnstyle. Fralkly, I'm ashamed of what they've done to it; and I think Ben would be too. 
