Smithsonian Natural History Museum, Washington DC

The National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., is part of the Smithsonian Institution, which manages most of the museums on the National Mall. We visited on a Sunday with free street parking.

Mall-side entrance to Natural History Museum

Like in previous museum trips, we let each family member pick out an exhibit to visit. Our first exhibit was Fossil Hall on the main floor.

Entering the past

The exhibit is set up in chronological order, though we started at the most recent part of the millions of years of history. A time line shows the various ages and the mass extinction events that separate them.

Looking at history

The skeletons here (with some added bits to fill out what archeologists could not find) are more familiar shapes, like horses and deer.

A recent ancestor to current animals

I hope that skeleton in the back isn't doing what it looks like it is doing!

Primal primate

Soon enough, we were back in dinosaur ages.

Rodin's Thinker as a dino?

Fun interactive exhibit

One display dispelled the idea that oil comes from dead dinosaurs. Creatures with shells and bones left petrified remains. A lot of the oil finds are in areas that were oceans or shallow bays, where a lot of invertebrates like plankton and microscopic organisms fell to the bottom of the sea. As layers of sediment covered the organic material, it broke down and formed into oil and natural gas.

Origins of oil

A stegosaur!

A fish with too many bones

Around a corner, a research area lets visitors see scientists working on fossils from around the world. Well, you would see them working if you didn't visit on a Sunday.

Asking for help with their science!

An off-to-the-side display showed dinosaur poop, including this sample that they think was from a T-rex. They could tell because there is some undigested bone in it, so definitely from a carnivore. Also, the tyrannosaur was the only carnivore big enough to have a turd this large.

Dino-dung, not worth stealing

Mammoth with some recreated bones (maybe Loki stole the tusks for his helmet?)

Next, we went upstairs to the gems and minerals exhibit, the main attraction being the Hope Diamond. 

Hope Diamond, definitely worth stealing

Ronald Winston donated a set of "Fancy Color Diamonds" ranging from pink, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, white, grey, and black. It's much more impressive to see in person. Most diamonds don't have a color outside of white.

Winston Fancy Color Diamonds

This aquamarine gem is the largest in the world at 10,363 carats. Jeweler Bernd Munsteiner named this "Dom Pedro" after the first two emperors of Brazil (where the original, sixty-pound crystal was found in 1980s Brazil). 

Dom Pedro Aquamarine

These diamond earrings belong to French Empress Marie Antoinette. 

Marie Antoinette earrings

The Logan Sapphire was cut from a Sri Lankan crystal and weighs 423 carats. The lighting does a great job highlighting the beauty of the gem.

Logan Sapphire

Further into the exhibit are less precious stone. You can tell because you are allowed to touch them!

Another interactive exhibit

A case full of crystals

Stibnite that looks like nails with barite that looks like mini-snowballs

Part of the exhibit simulates a cave where mining of gems happens.

You'd think this would be interactive

The cave leads into the Geology exhibit that talks about the earth was formed.

Making magma?

Meteorite (space poop?)

Display of southern space stones

We went for a snack next. By the cafe is a recreation of a megalodon, a gigantic shark that looks quite fearsome. Maybe we were supposed to be the snack.

Fish out of water

Me inside the jaws of another shark

The museum is famous for its African Bush Elephant located in the main rotunda. Around it are displays about Africa elephants.

Seen from upstairs

We decided to try out the Cellphone: Unseen Connections exhibit though we had low expectations.

Poor primate

Info in a friendly format

Some displays showed the history of cell phones, going back to the big clunky ones like I used to own twenty-five years ago. Another display shows elements used to build phones, including a jar of oxygen. I kid you not, check the photo below.

Not worth stealing

A timeline unlike the Fossil Hall exhibit

My kids played a roll-and-move game. I wasn't paying any attention to it so I do not know what they learned from it.

RU Serious?

The next hall had an exhibit on mummies, which I was interested in, but the rest of the family was "museumed out" so we went through quickly on the way to the exit. 

Burial masks

More funerary fun!

The live butterfly pavilion was closed, otherwise we probably would have visited that too. I guess it pays to check the website before going!

Cute Kid Pix November 2015

Here's some pictures of the kids from November 2015 that didn't make their own blog post...

The toddler has been very interested in my phone. But let's be honest, he's interested in anything with a glowing screen. Happily, I have an old phone (the one I used in England that doesn't work here) that has satisfied him for the time being.

Whatcha got there, Daddy?

Can I try it?

Thanks!

The older kids built a fort in the back yard with some help from a favorite neighbor. It's big enough to fit them in, but when I tried to get in, I had to back out carefully to avoid taking the whole thing down over my head Sampson-style.

Back yard fort

Close up

We thought about using the fireplace for the first time in the season but the weather never got cold enough. The kids gathered pillows and blankets anyway to sack out by the hearth. They made plenty of funny faces for the camera.

Kids in every direction!

The toddler doesn't know which way is up!

A nice hug for big sister

Not so nice choke-hold for big sister

Cell Phones and the First Pub

Today we celebrated the Fourth of July by doing that most American of things, being consumers. We bought two cell phones so we could be in touch with each other during the day. And we had a nice meal with our sponsors.

After visiting a bunch of stores a few days ago, I decided to shop at the store whose name seems quite old-fashioned, The Carphone Warehouse. Who calls them carphones anymore? My automatic spell checker even thinks "carphone" is a misspelling! They are thoroughly up to date in every other way, rest assured.

They sell unlocked phones (which are very common here) with SIM cards for the various providers thrown in to get big discounts. We decided on pay-as-you-go phones.  We never used up all our minutes back in the States even with the most minimal monthly plans possible, so it made sense. Also, our sponsors gave us a SIM card for Lebara, a popular cheap way to call internationally from the UK. So we will be swapping that SIM card into our current phones when calling home.

The staff was very professional. Well, at least to me they were professional. Some bloke came in asking if they could fix what looked like a USB flash drive. It seemed the cap came off and he couldn't get it back on. One of the staff said, "Oh, so those guys at Carphone Warehouse have nothing better to do, why don't I just bother them?" and the other two guys joined in on some good-natured ribbing. They all (including the hapless customer) had a good laugh. Then they explained to me that he comes in the store all the time and you don't get that sort of service without being an extremely regular customer.

Another of the staff guys said, "Hey, isn't it Independence Day? Happy day." He wasn't very enthusiastic, but what can you expect at 9:30 on a Monday morning from a Brit for the Fourth of July? I said thanks and finished my purchase. It was a great shopping experience.

Later that day, we went to a pub with our sponsors, The Pine Marten. It was very nice, not quite what you'd expect from a British pub. It was more like a regular restaurant, except they had a nice bar and rooms to let upstairs. They had some outdoor seating with a pond containing three water fountains and lots of big fish. The kids enjoyed sticking their fingers in, especially when the bigger fish swam by. Jacob, of course, visited the potty several times, even using the hand dryer when he went with Mommy. The Gent's dryer was too loud. At least he went in the Gent's room with me and did his business without complaining about the dryer. He washed his hands and, don't tell anyone, he dried them on his pants. At least he didn't run out of the bathroom as soon as he saw the hand dryer. Definite progress is being made on that front.

The food was pretty good and we had excellent British desserts--sticky toffee pudding and banoffee pie (banana, cream, and toffee in pie form!). Sticky toffee pudding was a favorite for my wife and me from our last visit to England. It's just as good as we remembered. Our children didn't even want to try it, which was fine with us, because it meant more for us!

It was a great Independence Day, all that was missing was fireworks. I hope your Fourth of July is (or more likely, was) lots of fun, even if you don't celebrate the day.

Jacob Cracks the Cell Phone Code

Granny got a new cell phone just prior to her latest visit. Jacob has been working on figuring out cell phone technology and was helping her out as can be seen in the following photo montage:

Jacob and Lucy race to unlock the secrets of cell phones

Jacob gets to Eureka first!

Jacob shares his knowledge with others

Not only was Granny visiting, but Auntie Rosemary stopped by with her dogs:

Jacob attempts to use The Force to lift the dog

Lucy goes in to pet the pet