One of the things we were looking forward to during our trip out east was visiting the museums and monuments in DC. We were so blessed to be able to spend time with some of our best friends, Myisha and Adam, on our visit downtown today. They drove up from southern Virginia to spend some time with our family. Mike rented a large SUV so we could all fit inside and venture downtown together. We parked at the Ronald Reagan building and then walked over to see the White House. The sidewalk closest to the lawn was open which was a much better view of the White House and the grounds. Andrew wanted me to take a picture of him pretending to climb the fence. I knew that wasn't a very good idea but I obliged and snapped a photo rather quickly so we didn't get into trouble with the security guard that stood only 20 feet away. After waving bye to Obama we headed towards the museums on the Smithsonian strip. The walk was rather brisk and we were pretty cold so we stopped at Cafe Paul to get some hot chocolate and a pastry. It was such a treat after walking so many blocks in the cold.
THE WHITE HOUSE
THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
After warming our bellies and hands we headed over to the Natural History Museum. This museum has always been one of our favorite museums. We headed first to the dinosaur exhibit which was under construction but they had a small section for that exhibit. It was a total bummer. At least they still had the T-Rex and the Triceratops up and the fossil lab was up and running. We enjoyed reading about the fossils that had been found in the Hell Creek Formation in North Dakota in 2013. We even got to see part of a tibia of a duckbilled dinosaur that they had collected in Montana last summer. It was 66 million years old. Amazing. After leaving the dinosaur exhibit we took some time to read about and see the mummies they had on exhibit. It was fascinating to see real mummies and read about how old they were and how you could tell if they were from royalty or not. I have to be honest, they were a little creepy. We went from one creepy thing to another as we headed over to watch the Tarantula feeding. Those things totally creep me out. The next stop was gems and minerals. Everyone had their favorites and wanted their pictures in front of them. After enjoying that part of the museum we walked through Africa section with the life sized animals before leaving the museum to go and eat lunch. We UBER'd it over to a really awesome Japanese restaurant to eat lunch. We were so EXCITED to eat real ramen but when we got there the wait time was super long so we decided to walk through China town and head to a great pizza place called Pi Pizza. The pizza was fantastic.
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THE AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM
After a hop, skip and a jump we landed at the Air and Space museum after lunch. This is another favorite museum of ours. We love all the planes and the new exhibit called Above and Beyond which was an interactive flight exhibition. We probably spent a good portion of our time at this exhibit. Abby loved the section where you could pretend to fly with a flock of birds. The Elevator to Space was also neat as well as the Space Junk game. The kids had fun playing this game where you got to compete with each other at "junker" stations trying to eliminate the most orbital debris surrounding Earth.
THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART
Our last stop of the day before our legs were totally jelly was a walk through the National Gallery of Art. This museum holds a special place in our hearts as this was Grandma Candace's favorite museum. We loved seeing the artwork, especially Renoir and Monet. At the end of our day we were completely filled by good times downtown DC with our friends. As we walked back to the car we passed the building I used to work in when I worked for Arthur Andersen. That part of my life seems like ages ago. After getting back to the car we headed back towards Virginia to eat at our all time favorite restaurant, Sweet Water Tavern. It was a fabulous day!
