The Smithsonian Museums

I think the favorite part of the entire trip for the kids were the amazing Smithsonian Museums on the mall.  I think we could have spent a full day in each one of them if we had the time.  Instead we raced through most of them in minutes or an hour or two at most, clearly not doing them any justice.

Air and space Museum: This one held an obvious draw for me and the boys, and we spent a decent amount of time here.  It was pretty fascinating to see historical artifacts from the history of flight and space travel.  The highlights definitely included the Wright Brother's original airplane, a huge number of artifacts from our first excursions into space, and replicas of several current devices, including the Mars rovers.

Museum of Natural Science: I think of all the museums this was my favorite, and probably the one we spent the most time in.  While there were displays about the history of life, evolution, and the like, by far the highlight was the crystals, minerals, and rock formations.  They were fascinatingly beautiful.  We were also able to see some incredible meteorites and the oldest rock on earth.  Todd has always been a fan of rocks and geology, so he was especially excited.  This place definitely could have used a full day and a full photo album all to itself.

 

Museum of American History:  This is one museum we barely saw, dipping in one day about a half hour before closing and running through it.  One of the more interesting displays was the inauguration dresses of the First Ladies. 

National Art Museums:  Again we in no way did these museums justice, racing through them when a full day might not be enough time.  Jake, having a degree in art history, was especially sad, but I think he understood that these were a difficult sell for the kids.  Here I took a handful of pictures before I realized they were prohibited.  Ooops....