The museums didn't open until 10:00, so we weren't quite as rushed as the day before. We still arrived early so we could make our hike from the car to the museum and still be there by time it opened. Since the museum wasn't open by time we were ready and because the name excited Elisabeth and Rebekah, we went to the Smithsonian Castle. Prior to sprawling out to 11 buildings on the National Mall plus an additional 6 others throughout D.C., the Castle was the original Smithsonian building. Today, the Castle serves as the main Visitor Center with a large interactive map to guide you to all the other museums. We took a few pictures inside while waiting for the Natural History Museum to open and quickly departed. That was where my first mistake for the day occurred. The Castle is right across the field from the Natural History Museum, but the park was closed due to construction while we were there. This meant we had to walk all the way back to a street crossing the park and back again. Normally, this would have been no problem, but Stacy was still favoring her foot and it took us considerably longer than it should.
Nevertheless, we arrived at our destination just a few minutes after it opened, and once we were through the metal detectors, we were in an amazing museum chalked full of stuffed animals from all over the world. The first floor had a huge collection of mammals, which was a hit with Matthew. We quickly skipped over the section on human origins but wafted gently through Ocean Hall.
I didn't realize just how much got cut out until later, but with only 2 hours in the museum, there were several sections we had to skip, the geology section including the Hope Diamond got the ax as well as Iceland, African Voices, and the mummies. But no time to reflect on opportunities missed, on to the second floor for what was Elisabeth's favorite part of the museum: Nature Photographs. There was a large room dedicated to photographs of animals. From the sweet to the silly, all were incredible shots. I had everybody pick their favorite photograph to get a picture with. Rebekah, of course, found the bunnies, but I was surprised which picture Stacy decided as her favorite.
Next on was the fossils. Now the full fossil exhibit was closed for renovations and won't be open until 2019, but they still had a good sized room with dinosaurs. The room was dark which made it difficult to take good pictures, but it was still amazing especially seeing the size of the Triceratops up close. After that came the insect room which was my favorite in the museum, because we just happened to show up for Tarantula feeding time. They brought in a tarantula in a cage and the worker talked for a little while about the arachnid. Then he placed a cricket into the cage. Everything was completely still until suddenly the normally lethargic Tarantula pounced on the cricket. It was over before you had time to gasp. With the excitement over we finished up the insects and passed over the butterfly exhibit (which was extra and had a long line). It was lunch time, so we allowed ourselves to be severely overcharged at the cafeteria. Poor Stacy had a very difficult time finding anything to eat. After finishing a pleasant lunch, it was time to head over to the Air & Space Museum.
It was Saturday at D.C., which meant it was incredibly crowded, and nowhere was this more apparent than that afternoon at the Air & Space Museum. We were packed in like sardines. Before going to the museum, I did a little research and found out there are 2 Air & Space Museums in D.C., one on the Mall and another just outside D.C. in Virginia. The one in Virginia houses the larger & newer planes, whereas the one at the Mall focuses on early flight and the World Wars.
Shortly after arriving, we met up with Nathan & Beth who had a 5k to run in the morning. Nathan took Matthew & Rebekah around the museum while the rest of us went split up and went the other direction. We toured the Wright Brothers in early flight, the commercial section, the Army & Navy of World War 2. Then we saw the Imax movie Journey into Space. This is an inspirational movie about living on the space station and eventually going to Mars. The only problem was we had already seen it at Huntsville's Space & Rocket Center. Had I known that, we probably would have seen one of the Planetarium showings instead.
Next we toured space and missiles, took a quick look around a very well designed section on navigation and our time was up. After that Nathan took us to Cantler's Riverside Inn where I learned how to eat crabs like they do in Maryland: with Old Bay Seasoning. The location was great, right on the river. But getting there was strange. We turned off the main road and into a residential district. That seemed strange, but I figured we were taking a short-cut. But we kept going deeper and deeper into a residential district with no businesses whatsoever. Finally, right before I declared that we were completely lost, the road ended at the restaurant. The atmosphere wasn't too bad as long as you got the patio. I also learned that parking spots in Maryland as narrower than most places I am used to, which led to a most unpleasant situation. The night ended with us once again staying up too late as we taught Nathan & Beth how to play Stone Age, a game they enjoyed quite a bit.
Our last day in D.C. was Sunday, where we went to Graceway Baptist Church. Pastor Brad Wells is a missionary that our church supports, so we thought it would be a good place to worship. He has a small church just down the road from the Capitol building. Most of the congregation were Marines living at the Barracks within walking distance of the church. After service, we went back to the apartment, packed everything up, and drove first to New Life Baptist Church in White Marsh MD to a Motel 6 in New Jersey where we spent the night (hoping the head-start would make the Monday drive easier). Tomorrow we would be in Maine, but not before learning the horror of the Eastern Toll Road!
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