DC Day 5: Smithsonians + Arlington

Arriving at the National Mall around 2:30, we immediately headed through the rain to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

photo from my mom

 It was crowded. First, we checked out the Easter Island statue downstairs.

Upstairs, we picked up our tickets for the Butterfly Pavilion and then checked out the insects exhibit while we waited for our turn to go in. The Butterfly Pavilion was cool, but smaller than I imagined. The guys definitely could have skipped it. I really enjoyed taking photos though. Big surprise.

photo by my mom

photo from my mom

 After admiring all the butterflies flying around, we went and looked at the Gemstones collection. Amazing. We saw the Hope Diamond, which is 45.52 carats.

I admired some of the other beautiful jewelry as well. It was impressive but didn't compare to the Crown Jewels of England we saw last year.

We also looked at the mummies briefly, and the giant elephant in the front entrance.

photo from my mom

Downstairs, we relaxed a bit and had some ice cream while mom visited the gift shop. At 4:30, we headed over to the Smithsonian American History Museum to spend the next three hours. Or so we thought. Walking up, I had a panic attack when I saw the sign outside say "We are open until 5:30 today." Wait - WHAT??? All the Smithsonians on the Mall have extended hours until 7:30 all Summer. Except for the American History Museum. That one night. Due to a stupid conference. Of course that had to happen on our last day there to the Museum we were most excited to see. Frustration!

We panicked, and split up in order to see everything we wanted to in an hour. On the bright side, half of the museum was closed due to renovations until 2015, so it was doable. The downside of that was all the museum maps were wrong and it was hard to find anything. Regardless, we managed to see all the highlights. Even if we didn't have a lot of time to read all the displays!

We saw Dorothy's Ruby Red Slippers from the Wizard of Oz,

Kermit the Frog,

Julia Child's Kitchen,

photo by my Dad

the Greensboro Woolworth's Lunch Counter site of a six-month long protest and sit-in,

and Lincoln's Top Hat.

photo from my Mom

Adam and I also saw but didn't photograph the Star Spangled Banner (it was huge!), First Ladies gowns, Edison's Lightbulb, the Gunboat Philadelphia, the America on the Move display, and a display on money through the ages.

It was a whirlwind tour, but at least we discovered the early closing before they were closed. Now THAT would have been disappointing.

The early closing allowed us to sneak in one thing I didn't think we'd have a chance to tour - Arlington Cemetery. We rushed over there via Metro, arriving at about 6:20, and started walking.

photo from my Mom

 Our first stop was at JFK's Eternal Flame.

photo from my Mom

Then we walked by Arlington House and over to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. From the entrance to this point (including our stop at JFK), it was just over a mile. It was hilly, but a beautiful walk.

We arrived at 6:50, in time for the 7 pm ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown. As we walked up, it started to sprinkle.

 By the time the ceremony started, it was pouring. We couldn't even understand what the soldiers were saying during the Changing of the Guard. Surprisingly, this just added to the poignancy of the experience; reiterating to us that these soldiers stand watch here 24/7, no matter the weather.

The cemetery closes at 7, and since it was pouring, nobody in the gathered crowd was too eager to go back out in the rain and trudge the mile back to the front entrance. Because it was pouring, a worker there took pity on all of us. He called the trolley service and it came up and took us back via the scenic route. It even dropped us off right by the Metro! Lucky us!

We took the Metro back to the hotel. The plan was to go back to the room, change out of our wet clothes, and head out to dinner where my parents had gone the night before. Unfortunately, as soon as we were in dry clothes it started storming again. We tried to wait out the storm, but by 9 we decided to settle in for the night and just order pizza. It gave us time to relax and pack, so it wasn't the end of the world.