DC Part 4: Museum of Natural History

The last "real" activity we did in DC was walking around the Museum of Natural History. Cornell's former president, David Skorton is now heading up the Smithsonian Institution, which I think is pretty cool. Anyway, D and I met up with our friend J and her daughter H and future baby N (still in the womb). Wow, is that enough initials for you? Anyway, I always love visiting the Mall and all of the awesome museums. The Air & Space one is another awesome one but I always love the Natural History Museum.

The line was pretty long, but it moves quickly because it's just security people checking your bags and sending you through a metal detector. The Smithsonian Museums are all free (hooray) so there's no queue to book tickets or anything like that.

Isn't H precious? She's at that awesome age where she knows how to speak her mind and knows what she likes and dislikes so we got to see a bit of her personality.

And we saw a smile or two.

We also saw the gorgeous Hope Diamond. My photo came out a little bleh, but I think it's pretty apparent how large and in charge this baby is.

And after I drooled over the Hope Diamond, I took a selfie with Harry Winston because he asked me to.

The gems and stones collection here is marvelous. I mean, it's just rocks, but it's cool, right?

I'm assuming that kids had off for Good Friday or something because this place was a legitimate zoo. It was extremely crowded and busy and somewhat claustrophobia-causing. But, there are plenty of exhibits and things to see so if you're ever in a similar situation, I recommend heading to the less popular areas to catch a break. For example, the geology exhibit is always much less crowded than say, the diamond exhibit or the dinosaurs. The solar system exhibit is also one of the less popular ones. Also, the insect area gets much less foot traffic, probably because half of the visitors (re: squeamish folks) avoid bugs at all costs.

Well, that's it for DC adventure posts. I have one more DC-related post coming regarding the public transportation system and Ubers so be on the lookout for that, if you're interested.

xoxo.