Washington D.C.

John and I went with Laura, Heather, Tom, Chris and Baby Cameron to Washington D.C.
First leg of the journey was to hop on the metro, which seemed to excite Cameron.

First stop was the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History…

The museum’s collections total over 125 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, and human cultural artifacts, making it the largest such museum anywhere. It is the second most popular of all of the Smithsonian museums and is also home to about 185 professional natural history scientists — the largest group of scientists dedicated to the study of the natural and cultural history in the world.

The museum has over 570,000 catalogued reptiles from around the world. The National Collection of Amphibians and Reptiles has increased 200% over the past 40 years (190,000 specimen records in 1970 to over 570,000 specimen records in 2008). The Hall of Dinosaurs has fossilized skeletons and cast models, including Tyrannosaurus Rex facing off with the Triceratops, and the “Triceratops exhibit shows the first accurate dinosaur skeleton in virtual motion, achieved through the use of scanning and digital technology.” The collection is 46 fossilized of the “complete and important specimens” dinosaurs.

In the Hall of Geology where they have gems and minerals, our hands touched mars…

We also of course saw the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument

The kids went to the Hirshorn…

and we went to the Air and Space Museum

Of course, we couldn’t leave without passing by the White House

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More images of our Trip to Washington D.C.

» John’s
» Barb’s