Photopost: National Museum of Funeral History & Museum of the Weird Yard Sale

National Museum of Funeral History - Houston, TX, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Model of National Tomb lowering mechanism - National Museum of Funeral History - Houston, TX, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Popemobile! - “Celebrating the Lives and Deaths of the Popes” - National Museum of Funeral History - Houston, TX, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

“Celebrating the Lives and Deaths of the Popes” - National Museum of Funeral History - Houston, TX, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Museum of The Weird Sign 1, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Museum of The Weird Sign 2, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Dead Pope Tuesday: Pontiffs at the National Funeral History Museum

Opening on Tuesday, the National Funeral History Museum will be exhibiting “Celebrating the Lives and Deaths of the Popes.” I might have to go if only to see who else would be seeing a Dead Pope Show on its opening day. I hope they have a Pope Formosa display (who was exhumed for a post-death trial - found guilty). Now that would be worth seeing.

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Dead Pope Is Installed In Funeral Museum - Trunkations

More Houston Museums: Weird, Electric & Dead Popes on Display

Gulf Coast Electronics Museum, originally uploaded by favouritethings.

Just when I thought I had exhausted all the nuggets of cultural quirkiness in Houston, I find more. While I missed the latest Sunday Eyeopener Tour (NOT a morning person) by the Orange Show Foundation, their online post mentioned the Gulf Coast Electronics Museum. I am now working on finding out more about this newly discovered museum.

My hunt for the electronics museum led me to search Flickr and finding favoritething's collection of Houston shots, including the above shot. Although not pictured in her photoset, she mentioned the Museum of the Weird, a venue I thought long closed due to a lack of recent info. Google shows a museum of that name in Austin, looking just like a dime museum of oddities. Not sure if the Houston and Austin museums are related.

As for the long-ago visited National Museum of Funeral History I need to go again to see their dead pope exhibit. At 5,000 square feet of display space, I'm intrigued at what is taking up all the room.

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Posts on the Museum of the Weird and other Houston sights:

House of the Purple Worms: Second Half of Sunday With Min
Travel Maven blog: Quirky Houston flaunts cars, scars, and beer cans

Funeral History Museum & The Beer Can House

To help my wife be more productive, I decided to visit some of the local attractions (in other words, she was sick of me watching TV and kicked me out while she graded papers.)

I decided on the National Museum of Funeral History, as it was a bit of a drive and I wouldn't be in that part of the city for any other reason.

1951 Superior-Cadillac Landaulet Hearse (Detail), National Museum of Funeral History, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

1972 Japanese Ceremonial Hearse (Detail), National Museum of Funeral History, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Bickmore Morticians Powder, National Museum of Funeral History, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Leopard Fantasy Coffin, National Museum of Funeral History, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Three Person Coffin, National Museum of Funeral History, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

The museum closed and I drove back into town. I had spent a little time marking places of interest on my Houston road map, so I pulled that out. The Beer Can House was in Houston proper and from what I knew I could see much of it from the sidewalk. A shrine to beer, I'm glad I stopped by.

There are other places I'm eager to visit, but I think I'll have to drag the missus to those.

Mailbox & Front Gate, Beer Can House - Houston TX, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Outside Wall Detail, Beer Can House - Houston TX, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

Technorati Tags: Beer Can House, National Museum of Funeral History