DC Visit and Museum Reviews

Smithsonian Castle - Source of all evil

Today we decided to abandon the  dogs, and do a little sight seeing.  Traffic was unnaturally light for DC, except right in the Mall area.

Our first stop in DC, besides a little mandatory driving confusion, was at the National Geographic Museum to see the Anglo Saxon Hoard, an exhibit based on a trove of treasure discovered in a field in Staford-shire, England, apparently buried in about 650 A.D.

Natural History Museum

Washington Monument

Capitol

Metallic Tree in Sculpture Garden

Inverted House in Sculpture Garden

The trove consists of a large number of intricate and often bejeweled articles of gold, often used as decorations on weapons.

I found the objects interesting, but the display less than perfect.  I understand you need to keep lights low on old art and fabric, but gold and garnets do not fade in the light.  More light would have made the jewelry displayed much more appealing.





Our tickets for the Anglo Saxon Hoard also entitled us to see the "Animal Grossology" exhibit, designed for children, to introduce them to the "grosser" aspects of nature.  It was actually pretty amusing, and the kids inside seemed to be having a ton of fun.  It was full of potty humor. One of the comments in the guest book was "I liked the cow fart".







After the National Geo museum, we traipsed off to Air and Space.  Air and Space is a huge museum, and well worth the time if you have any interest in space flight or aviation.

We split up, and Georgia and I searched fruitlessly for the perfect sweatshirt for a while, and then went to another kid's exhibit "How Things Fly".   It was a very hands-on exhibit, with lots of things for kids to do that illustrated the principals of flight.  Again, it was jammed with kids, and they seemed to be having a ball.




After the visit to Air and Space we walked back to the car, conveniently parked at Natural History.  On the way we walked through the sculpture garden adjacent to Nat. Hist. and I took a couple of pictures.

Triceratops skull statue outside Natural History

This house is an old classic.  The vertex of this house actually points away from the observer, making the house concave from the front.  But here is a very strong optical illusion that makes it look convex, like a proper house would be.