The Natural History Museum

Last weekend we had beautiful weather so we decided to have an adventure in Washington DC. After some discussion we decided on the Natural History Museum followed by a walk along the National Mall.

The Natural History museum houses many great artifacts including dinosaur bones and the Hope Diamond. We did not see those first. We started in the basement with the "Birds of Washington DC" exhibit. The kids were really animated and pointed at all of the birds (they were taxidermied.) They exclaimed over the owls and hummingbirds especially. I really enjoyed seeing a bald eagle. Did you ever notice how it's feathers grow down its legs, looking like bird pants? I thought that was pretty funny. The kids loved the ducks and the turkey too. Jonathan kept trying to say bird (bwa) and Jimmy and Amelia were amazed to see real birds so close. As we turned the last corner, we came upon a pair of large, white swans, in a glass case. They were at waist height for adults, so the children could not see them. Gary lifted each kids up, starting with Amelia to get a better look. As soon as she saw the bird, she let out blood curdling scream! It was genuine terror! She shook and sobbed she tried to get away. She was inconsolible at the sight of these swans. Neither Gary nor I could see what the problem was. She was fine for every other bird on display, but those swans really set her off.

After that, we went to the gems and mineral halls. Nothing could be scary there. ANd nothing was scary there. We all oohed and aahed over the beautiful rocks and minerals, spending more time on the mineral displays then on the gems set in jewelry.

Then we went to go and see the reptile skeletons and the insect zoo. All of the bones were neatly arranged and very sterile however they gave Amelia the willies. Gary and I enjoyed the turtle skeletons. Jimmy like seeing the graphs that demonstrated bone growth and develpment.

In the Insect Zoo, Gary got to hold a large grass hopper. I asked if he would hold the kissing cockroach next and he laughed at me. It turns out I had heard wrong. It was a HISSING cockroach. We passed it by and headed to the dinosaur area. We all got a thrill out of seeing real, life size dinosaur fossils. Jimmy got the biggest thrill out of (drum roll please) the computer kiosk. He couldn't get enough of the computer display and had to be dragged away to look at the actual dinosaur bones. Once he noticed those, he thought they were pretty neat. Especially the t-rex. Amelia liked the baby dinosaurs.

We ended the day on the National Mall, with a short walk to the Washington Monument. It looked beautiful against the setting sun.