Day trip to Washington DC
lobby of the Natural History Museum
I must say I picked a horrible day to travel to the city. Saturday it did nothing but rain all morning and into the afternoon. The weather reports I saw that morning indicated the rain would stop and the clouds would blow through by the afternoon. I wanted to walk around the tidal basin to snap some shots of the cherry blossoms. Their peak was the weekend before, so I was not having much hope, but I was determined to make it up there this year. While waiting for the weather to clear I decided to stop by the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.
When I arrived at the Smithsonian Metro exit, despite my best efforts to miss the rain it was still falling. Even though it was only a drizzle, I don’t like getting rained on. Fortunately the walk to the museum is short, only a couple of blocks at most. As I got closers I could see this huge line of people pouring out the front entrance onto the Mall. As a native, I know about the entrance on Constitution Avenue and would try my luck there. No love there either, two long lines snaked down the stairs and around the driveway. After a few minutes in the rain I was passing security. The guy did a cursory check of my bag and I walked through a metal detector. I am almost certain the metal detector was not plugged in.
ROAR!
Inside, the ground floor was jammed with people, not to surprising considering the nasty weather outside. It also reopened recently after being closed for remodeling, and throw in spring break with a lot of tourists visiting the city from who knows were. There was all this commotion inside, a sea of people constantly moving and shuffling along. I was really looking forward to a nice quite day at the museum but I could see that was not going to happen. Instead I just headed up to the first floor to start exploring.
What a wide variety of exhibits on display. I walked through the large Sant Ocean Hall, one of the many permanent exhibits on display. Other exhibits I saw included soil, bones, dinosaurs (ROAR!), moon rocks and meteors. I even attempted to see the Hope Diamond, but that was a lost cause, way to many people and I didn’t care to fight crowds. But I did walk through the rest of the gem exhibit and saw some cool stuff. Not only precious materials like diamonds, jade, gold and silver. But also things like coal, granite, and a radioactive rock.
Then there was the Orchids Through Darwin’s Eyes exhibit that had a full display of various living orchids. And the video about were all us mammals came from. And another video I saw on the Rastafafari movement, something I had only heard about briefly. The video explained where it came from, what is about, and like most religions the persecution its believers have gone through. Walked through the savanna of Africa with different animals on display and a whole bunch of words. So much to see I couldn’t see it all in one trip.
cherry blossoms
When I finally left the museum the weather did clear and it turned into a nice day. The sun was shinning with a blue sky so I walked across the Mall towards the tidal basin to see the cherry blossoms. Unfortunately 95% or so of the blossoms had already fallen and leaves started to appear. That’s what happens when you arrive late to a time sensitive event. To makeup for blossoms I did find a tulip garden. It was in full bloom with a large variety of colors, got some good shots here. Even without the cherry blossoms I still managed some shots of the tidal basin, the trees, and the Jefferson Memorial across the water. The Jefferson Memorial was calling me while taking my photos so I took the short walk to the memorial. They had a small stage with a live band playing, all part of the waning days of the cherry blossom festival. I was surprised by the number of people hanging out on the steps listening to the music. I stayed for a few minutes, but spent most of my time walking inside and around the memorial.
As the sun started to set I headed back to the Metro station for a short ride back to Springfield and my car. The weather could have been better, but it turned into a nice day in the city.
