Washington, DC: Day 3 (National Museum of Natural History and Ford’s Theater)

Day 3 in DC wasn’t near as cold or hot or rainy as the previous two (win). We decided to fulfill Elsie’s week-long dream and ride the train all the way to Union Station this time which turned out to house a McDonald’s that was at least 50% more expensive than the one a few blocks away near our “usual stop”. I haven’t mentioned it yet but every day we took the train into DC we had about an hour to kill before the museums opened up and spent it having Second Breakfast at McDonald’s. (Not our finest decision. By McDonald’s breakfast #4 we were really feeling it.)

Train time

Union Station

Pricey McDonald’s 

Union Station!

Taking the free shuttle bus to our first stop: the National Museum of Natural History.

This museum was awesome. We spent a surprising amount of time looking at all kinds of animal skeletons.

Margot loves big horn sheep.

Did you know a walrus’s skull looks like this?! Me neither.

There was some cool Egyptian stuff too.

And lots of unusual collections like this huge slap of lapis lazuli.

Sisters on the steps

This is Ford’s Theater where Abraham Lincoln was shot while he attended a show. It is still in use as a theater. Next door there is a very extensive museum all about Lincoln’s presidency, the state of America during that time, and a detailed timeline of the events around Lincoln’s death, including lots of information about John Wilkes Booth and his buddies.

This is the actual gun used to shoot Lincoln! It is super tiny.

This is the bedroom on the ground floor of the Petersen house, across the street from the Ford Theater. Lincoln was carried here after being shot and it is where he died several hours later. 

It was a sobering but really interesting experience to see all of this.

The National Zoo and a Recycling Center

One rainy Saturday we drove over to the National Zoo in hopes of seeing their pandas. Unfortunately they mostly stayed out of sight (we did get to see one, but from further away than we had hoped) but we also got to bring along a favorite cousin so it all worked out.

That is a lot of poop.

The naked mole rat exhibit was our absolute favorite. There were so many of them, and they are so naked and tiny and blind. We hear there is a live feed online but we haven’t watched it yet. One of our family’s favorite books is Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems so it was really fun to see them for real!

This is us in front of the sun bear. We hear she recently had twins, who were hiding when we took this photo with their mama.

I’ve been wanting to see a recycling plant up close but there are so few who do tours in cities we are visiting, so when I found this one in Maryland I knew we had to go. Plus, then we could check Maryland off of our States We’ve Visited map. Well, the tour was fantastic and way more interesting than I thought it would be but Else was sick on the day we went so we can’t scratch MD off until all 8 of us have been there. I guess we’ll have to go back.

This is where the trucks dump all the trash.

It is then dumped on a conveyor belt and sent to these nice ladies who sift through it, pulling out garbage and separating out all of the recyclables onto several other conveyor belts that leave from this area, depending on what type of recyclable each item is. They work so fast! I can only imagine how badly their feet and backs hurt at the end of the day after standing hunched over all day. They’re also super friendly and kept waving up at the kids when they had a break.

This is further down the line where it’s mostly just cans and plastics. It’s incredible how much garbage this one plant goes through in just half an hour. I liked learning how different materials are recycled into new items. Not all plants take all materials. This one takes glass, which I guess isn’t very common, even though glass is one of the few recyclables that are very easily reused in its original form. We learned that a can or bottle of soda can be recycled, cleaned, formed into a new can or bottle and be back on the shelf full of soda in only 2-3 months.

Richmond, Virginia Temple and Science Museum

One of the days we were in Virginia we drove south a little bit to go to the Open House for the new Richmond, VA temple. When temples are new, the public is invited to tour inside, and that is what we did! It was really beautiful, with artwork inside that I hadn’t seen before and pretty rugs that were sooooo cushy and soft even my kids noticed.

The Science Museum of Virginia was really fun. It is housed in an old train station built in 1917.

Hurricane Room

Lots of interactive exhibits we hadn’t seen before.

The hamster wheel. 

Just after this photo was taken I had the privilege of pulling one of my children off the wheel 

while she kicked and screamed (it wasn’t Juniper). 

We got it back together for a photo out front.

Washington, DC: Day 2 (Hirschhorn, Air & Space, American History)

Waiting for the train - it was overcast and rainy most of the day.

Our second day in DC started out at the Hirschhorn Museum where we saw some modern art.

Then we headed to the Air and Space Museum. Dave had reserved the (free) tickets in advance because it’s supposed to be the best museum for kids in DC but it was just so busy. Our kids have been spoiled on this trip, seeing so many amazing museums without the crowds, so we didn’t enjoy this one as much or for as long as we had hoped. 

We obviously had to stop and get a pic with the Wright Brothers and see their original 1903 flyer.

This is one of their original Wright bicycles!

I don’t remember what this is exactly anymore but it’s some sort of moon ranger thing, of great importance and acclaim. 🤦🏼‍♀️

This is the real suit that Neil Armstrong wore when he first walked on the moon!

There was some really awesome stuff in there.

After Air &Space we met some friends at the National Museum of American History, which was really fun. There were all kinds of interesting memorabilia from American History, such as:

the American flag made that inspired The Star Spangled Banner,

Dorothy’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz (1939),

the original costumes for R2D2 and C3PO (1983),

a children’s creative area,

Dave’s dream car (how did they know?),

and Abraham Lincoln’s hat!