First Day in Washington DC-Smithsonian

Sunday night July 12 we arrived at our campground in Maryland, just 12 miles from the Capitol, and were eager the next morning to ride the Metro (subway). Rather than dealing with the DC traffic and parking problems by driving, the Metro worked so slick we used it all four days of our sight-seeing.


Our first day was spent at the Smithsonian. Did you know there are 19 museums that make up the Smithsonian (17 in DC)? Each one could take a day to walk through, so we chose a few to explore.

Here are a couple of things at the Museum of Natural History, part of the Gems and Minerals Exhibit:

The Hope Diamond (45.52 carats)

This topaz made the Hope Diamond look small...

Dinosaur Hall, Ocean Hall and Mammal Hall were really cool, too. Mammal Hall especially reminded me of the museum in Denver.

We snuck in about 30 minutes in the National Gallery of Art. The boys loved the "Royal Armor and Portraits from Imperial Spain" exhibit, and I enjoyed seeing the only complete set of portraits of the first five presidents by Gilbert Stuart.

Most of our day was spent at the Air and Space Museum. This is Wilbur & Orville Wright's first plane, the 1903 Wright Flyer

There were so many remarkable planes, space shuttles and modules in one museum that it became a little overwhelming

The view out the windows behind the tomahawk missile is The Mall and part of the National Gallery of Art

At the time we didn't even think about 1 week after our day at the Museum, that the Apollo 11 would be all over the news to celebrate the 40th anniversary of landing on the moon.
One of the things we wanted to do, but didn't have a chance, before our trip was see the new movie, "Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian". So we saw it that evening at the Imax while we were there. SO COOL!!!!
This is the backside of the Air & Space Museum (opposite of The Mall side).

After the movie, we walked to the Capitol to sit on its steps to watch the Navy Commodores Band perform. It was a great first day!