D.C., Day 3

 

This was our only full day of touring D.C., so it was packed with lots of what we wanted to see.  First was an 8 am tour of the White House.  We had requested tickets when I found out we were going to D.C., but the process usually takes about 6 weeks because of background checks, so we ended up using some guest passes from the Senator's office.  We felt pretty special, but we still got the regular tour.  You can't take pictures until you are out of the portico in back, so we took some with our camera phone.

There were 3 buildings that I had to see before leaving: The National Museum of American History, The Library of Congress, and the National Gallery of Art.  Del really wanted to see the Museum of Natural History, so that was on our list, too.  We started with the MNH, and we were amazed at how much there was to see.  

We kept recognizing things from the movie, "Night at the Museum," so we felt like we had been there before.  Remember this elephant from the movie? We figured that he was a movie star, so Del posed with him.

 

 

I loved getting a close-up view of the Hope diamond and reading about its fascinating history!  If I could have just tried it on I would have been in heaven!

 

We spent lots of time in the gem room.  I guess I have some of my dad's geologist genes.  It's hard to tell from this picture how big they are, but the mineral in the bottom right corner is over a foot tall and about 20 inches wide.  I coveted lots of things in this exhibit!

 

The Egyptian room was really interesting, and we loved these mummified cats (and parts of cats!).  Poor things!

 Next we went to the NMAH and saw fun things like these guitars.  I can't remember who owned them all, but I'm pretty sure one was from Jimi Hendrix and one from Eddy Van Halen.

While we were there, the NMAH was showcasing an exhibit of about 100 dresses owned  by the First Ladies.  Del was very bored there, but I had a great time!  

This was my favorite.  It was worn by Julia Grant in the 1870's, and it is midnight blue with black lace overlay.  It looked about my size, but unfortunately it was behind glass so I couldn't try it on to see.

 I couldn't resist snapping a picture of my favorite U.S. President! I still remember voting for him in a mock election in the 5th grade.  We had to research our candidate and cast our vote.  I remember feeling that I was doing something very important even though I was only 11!

We really wanted to see the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, but they were on tour. We did get to see these precursors to the Muppets, though, that were made by Jim Henson.  Some of them look just a little creepy!

We saved 2 hours to spend in the National Art Gallery, but we soon found that it wasn't nearly enough time. I couldn't seem to cruise through the 90+ gallery rooms.  The building itself is beautiful, with flowers and famous statues around each corner.

 Everywhere we turned there were beautiful paintings to drool over!  We started out in the rooms with the oldest art, so most of it was religious in nature.  It was fun to see works from the 1300's, but if I had realized how many exhibits were in the building, I would have gone very quickly through those rooms. I was mostly interested in seeing the mid-century masters, especially the Dutch and Italian. I had just gotten to these exhibits when it was announced that they were closing in 15 minutes! At this point, we had only made it through half of the art gallery!  I tried to hurry through, but it is an absolute thrill to see Rembrandts, Monets, Vermeers, and so many other masters up close. The details are amazing, and each of them is brilliant for different things.  I could not get over the richness of the colors Rembrandt used, and I loved the subject matter and interpretation of Monet.  It was so exciting to stand in front of pictures I've seen in art books all of my life. For instance, I always felt a kinship with this young girl with her nose stuck in a book.

 

We got kicked out of the building long before I was ready. We hadn't even seen da Vinci yet!

 Here I am sitting on the steps.  I just didn't want to leave.

We had spent hours and hours walking during the day and the day before.  By the time we got back to our hotel our feet were exhausted, and we both had shin splints.  It was worth it, though!