A Capital Idea: The Smithsonian

 

During our time so near Washington D.C. over Labor (& Memorial) Day, we make it a goal to do one family activity with the kids. In the spring, I brought up the idea of taking the kids to one of the Smithsonian museums, but we had a scheduling conflict that did not allow us the time. So, we were excited for our Labor Day trip and the opportunity to spend some experiencing our nation's capital. We took the Metro downtown and came out right on the capital mall with great views of the Capital Building and Washington Memorial. We found some shade (it was sunny & quite warm) in which to eat our picnic lunch before making our way to the Natural History museum. (We had debated which museum to go see with the kids and decided that the Natural History museum would hold their attention best.)

 

 

The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

 

 

 

Almost as soon as we got into the museum, we knew that we had made a great choice. Our first stop was the hall of mammals, which had nearly every sort of mammal you could imagine stuffed and on display. You would think that after so many trips to the zoo that the kids would not be that impressed with stuffed animals, but they loved it, especially Kyrie. We made our way from the mammals and through the ocean creatures (not spending nearly enough time at anything mostly because Degen was always wanting to get to the next thing). After the ocean creatures, we stopped to see all the dinosaur bones and displays. Darren & I tried our best to tell the kids about all the displays and give them the information in ways that they could understand. After the dinosaurs, we made our way to the insect exhibit and the small human skeleton exhibit. The cool thing about museums is you never quite know what is going to catch your kids' interests. For Kyrie, the human skeleton exhibit was it! She walked right past the mummies, but when we found some cases with real bones displaying various diseases or injuries, she wanted to know all the details.

 



 

After the insect & skeleton exhibits, we walked through the mineral & gem exhibit, which was very cool. It started with a lot of factual information about the earth and space and how things like meteorites and volcanoes helped to create some of the minerals & gems that we find on earth today. Rough looking rocks and minerals of every size & shape led into a gem room that amazed. Kyrie would look into each display case and exclaim about how some special gem would make the perfect piece of jewelry for me. The unfinished gems led into the National Jewelry exhibit, including the Hope Diamond. We had a really great afternoon, and look forward to making our way back to more of the Smithsonian museums in the future.