First Family Visit to Washington, D.C. -- Day 2

After an afternoon at the National Museum of American History, we spent the night in a hotel in the D.C. area.  Mom, dad and I got up early Saturday morning so dad could get to the airport in time to catch his early flight.  After we saw him through security, mom and I went back to the hotel and got ready for the day along with Jason and the girls.  We did the same thing we did Friday, drove to a Metro park and ride, then took the Metro into the city.  On Friday the girls had gotten a little bored at the American History museum, so we decided to cater more to their science tastes and headed to the National Museum of Natural History, also part of the Smithsonian system of museums.

 

The first thing we saw after we entered the museum was a giant stone head from Easter Island.  The girls have seen Night at the Museum and spent some time staring at the statue saying "hello dumb dumb, give me some gum gum."

 

 

The girls could have spent days in this museum, they were fascinated by everything.  We will definitely be going back.

Giant squid
 

Salt water tank with coral reef

 

Tarantula

The museum has a butterfly enclosure, so we got tickets and spent some time in there.  Really cool to sit and watch the butterflies flit around.  Elise is a butterfly whisperer, she has a way of getting up to butterflies. 

 

It was particularly fun when a butterfly just landed on us unexpectedly.  Anja stood with this one on her for quite a while.

 

Hello there!

 

There's a little one on my shoulder.

 

The Hope Diamond.  Honestly, I thought it would be bigger.

There is a large exhibit of gems and minerals, including some beautiful jewelry on display.  The girls (all of us girls!) enjoyed seeing these pretty, sparkly things. 

A crown given by Napoleon to his second wife, Marie Louise (the one he dumped Josephine for).

 

 

A giant chunk of amethyst.  Anja insisted on a picture, since purple is her favorite color.

 

 Washington, D.C. is very diverse.  There are homeless people, street vendors, well-educated professionals, blue-collar workers, and tons of tourists from all over the world.  It is also pretty common to see people in uniform, military, police, a variety of uniforms. As we were walking back to the Metro, a man walking very quickly strode past us.  He had on tan military pants and shirt (not cammo, more like a dress shirt and pants), and had a soft-sided leather brief case slung across his shoulder.  Elise said to me, "Mom, look at that soldier."  And I said "um hmm."  Then Anja yelled, "WHY DOES THAT MAN HAVE A PURSE?"  I quickly explained what a brief case is.  Oh, that kid cracks me up.  You NEVER know what she is going to say or do.