What a day Aliza, Josiah and I had on a big kid field trip to the National Museum of Natural History in DC. I navigated the Metro for the first time on my own. With a little help from the attendant at the metro terminal, we had a smooth trip in. It was actually a straight shot to the Smithsonian stop and only a short walk to the museum.
Christie and her boys got to the museum first so we hopped in line with them. First stop was lunch where we quickly decided, based on cost, that we will pack lunch next time.
We decided to start on the second floor with the bones and skeletons exhibit. It was fascinating to see the bone structure of so many different (very large and very small) animals.
Next up was the insect zoo where Aliza and Josiah held a grasshopper.
An exhibit on Ancient India and mummies was a little unsettling at times, but especially interesting because Josiah just studied India, mummies, pharaohs, and religion as part of his Ancient History class this year.
The museum's collection of gems, crystals and minerals was beyond what I could imagine. Every color and size imaginable. Of course, the entire museum was based on the theory of evolution, but the children and I walked away even more convinced that only a divine Creator could orchestrate all of this beauty and intricacy.
The largest blue diamond in world, the Hope Diamond, is on display in it's own room in a huge case that turns a quarter turn in 10 second intervals so that it can be viewed equally on all sides. We were looking forward to this exhibit because it is pictured and highlighted in Aliza's Earth Science textbook. It is something like 122 carats, so you would think that they would be huge. And it is, but in the case that it is in, it doesn't look *that* big.
Aliza would have liked to spend more time in the volcano exhibit since she just finished studying volcanoes. Instead we headed down to the first floor to the ocean and dinosaur exhibits. By this time, I was on visual overload!
It was really great to be with friends who kept that same pace we did. We were all pretty well finished at the same time. We could definitely go again some day as there were exhibits that we didn't make it to. We stood in line to get into the National Archive building, but the line didn't move fast enough. Instead we walked to Union Station, got a snack and then it was time to head for home.
Riding the Metro during rush hour was a completely different experience and this time we had to change trains. But we made it! I was very happy to be crossing the bridge back to the Shore. I had to chuckle at myself because as I was so happy to be out of the city, I remembered that days when I felt like I was leaving the mainland of society when I crossed that bridge. I'm not a city girl and I'm perfectly ok with that! Aliza and Josiah had their own conversation the whole way home which made my heart smile.
Meanwhile, Anna and Isaiah had a day with Grandma and Grandad. They were pleased that they got to go fishing.
On a scale of 1-10, Isaiah rated his day a 20!
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