Museum of Natural History

Since it was rainy and cold on Tuesday morning we decided to start out at the Smithsonian museums. Both times I had been to D.C. before I had gone to the Air and Space Museum so I was excited to check out some other Smithsonian Institution’s. Our first stop was the Museum of Natural History. I loved seeing all the animals in the Mammal and Ocean Hall. They even had a giant squid! There was a really cool interpretation of a coral reef that was entirely knitted. We went through the Human Origins hall and did a pretty funny interactive exhibit that let you see what you would look like as a Neanderthal; basically I would gain 50 pounds and grow facial hair is what it showed me. I quickly left that area though because human evolution freaks me out. That’s why I can’t stand to look at any form of monkey/ape/chimpanzee/gorilla etc. It just seems like at any moment they could stand up, shake my hand and start talking about the weather.
This is Jess entering hibernation:

Anyway we got to see the huge dinosaur fossils of T.Rex (as seen in “Night At The Museum”) which were huge. The elephant in the Rotunda was fairly impressive as well. My favorite part of the whole museum however was the Hall of Gems and Minerals. The Hope Diamond was the most famous exhibit and absolutely gorgeous

I just love the insane colors and shapes of these things. I love reading about where they come from and how they were found.

Jess managed to get in trouble again in the Egyptian exhibit. While we were walking through I was putting a Jolly Rancher in my mouth when I saw the security guard bearing down on us so I started freaking out. Alas, he was gunning for Jess and told her to put away her camera as there was a strict no camera policy in just this exhibit.This is turning into a theme...