You don't have to be with a child to enjoy this celebration of childish things. In fact, a noisy or rambunctious kid can actually ruin the richly nostalgic experience of wandering through the Toy and Miniature Museum's rooms filled with relics of long-gone childhoods. The vast collection is exhibited in a rather hodgepodge manner, but the rooms don't seem like sterile museum galleries; the place feels like the best toy store in the world. And visitors learn the history of the world through its playthings: by peering through the windows of Victorian dollhouses, listening to the whistle of toy trains and taking a gander at the dozens of vintage board games. Those games, which depended on cleverness and imagination, happily entertained generations of children and adults before the advent of you know who, that seductive electronic babysitter. And this may sound crazy, but the Toy and Miniature Museum is a great place for a grown-up date. You'll be amazed at the very personal revelations that come up while going down memory lane. Leave the brats at home with their own toys and come here instead.
