We took the Metro into DC proper this morning (note to self: take the line with the fewest stops!) about an hour before the parade started.
Parade, you ask? You see, we scheduled our trip during the last few days of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. This wasn't on purpose, but it's actually been OK. None of the sites we've visited so far have been too mobbed with folks.
Anyway, we wandered around the Mall a bit before heading to the Museum of Natural History. So, some photos! First up, we have Friend #2, hereafter known as WK, being a tourist:
Looking back east toward the capitol building:
On our way to the museum, we spotted the parade route, and I forced Friends #1 (hereafter known as MC) and #2 to stop so I could at least see the start of the festivities.
Then it was on to the museum! We hit a couple of main areas:
- Ocean hall
- Gems and minerals
- Bugs
I went on to the special Orchid Exhibit while MC and WK browsed the sadly-limited Egyptian collection.
This was a pretty cool mineral formation of ... well, something white and wiggly.
I really enjoyed the minerals sections. The gems were cool and shiny, but the minerals are more appealing to me - maybe because most of them are uncut and natural, sort of showing how cool nature is without us messing around with it.
One of the beautiful orchids:
For lunch we headed to the Mitsitam Cafe in the National Museum of the American Indian. Lots of supposedly native/traditional foods. It seemed reasonably authentic for what it was. I got a bison tenderloin along with some blueberry fry bread. MC got some sort of "taco" made from the fry bread.
Post lunch I demanded that we go by the United States Botanic Garden. I was really wowed with the extent of the plant life they had inside the greenhouses. Outside was less impressive, certainly when compared to the Missouri Botanical Gardens I visited a few years ago. It seems as though most of the orchids at Natural History probably came from the USBG:
We made a quick detour over to gawk at the Capitol:
Then it was on to the Library of Congress. Holy Crap! Probably the coolest structure I've ever been inside. Pretty sure every ceiling is decorated with paintings or mosaics. Here's the entry hall:
One of the mosaics on the wall:
Finally, I'll leave you with this handsome devil!
Posing tip for myself: do not lean back on things and put hands on said things. Shoulders look weird!
Anyway, I took like a jillion photos, they'll be posted sometime after I get through posting all of my Boston photos. Peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment