Museum of Natural History

Yesterday we ignored the weather forecast and headed to D.C. We really wanted to get out and I figured we'd be indoors most of the time, so the rain wouldn't bother us. It was raining when we left the house, lightened up to a drizzle when we got to the metro station, and was really just a mist by the time we got off at the Smithsonian stop.

We headed over to the National Museum of Natural History just as it opened. We wandered through the oceans exhibit first--not exactly the best course of action--since that isn't what we had gone to see. By the time we got around to seeing what we wanted to see, of course the place was crowded. Anyway, in the ocean exhibit we saw the giant squid and learned about the whale's ancestors (from a very enthusiastic docent). Oh, and we saw a lot of gross looking fish.

From the oceans we headed to see the dinosaurs--which is what Ross really wanted to see. The skeletons are really impressive. Ross's favorite is the Stegasaurus. I liked the Apatosaurus--it was so long! My favorite fossil though, was the fossil in the belly of the fossil.

The gems and minerals came next. Wow. They have some bling there on display at the Smithsonian. We got a bit worn out in the middle of the mineral displays. I guess 2 hours walking around a museum will do that to you. I sat down for a bit and had a nice view of the Capitol building.

Since we were running out of energy we had to decide what we really wanted to see. I decided we would go through the temporary orchid exhibit before heading to lunch. The exhibit had lots of colorful flowers, and I even got to see a vanilla plant. After lunch we walked through some of the sculpture gardens. Ross saw a metal sphere sculpture just like the ones at the Vatican. We also saw some blooming trees. I hope the weather is better next week--I think we are going back to see more cherry blossoms.