2023 Family Trip to Washington DC - Smithsonian Museum of Natural History - Day 02 - 2023/04/29

It's 2023 and we're taking a family trip to Washington DC! Yesterday was a day of traveling to get here, but today it a day for exploring! Let's go! 

Leaving the hotel bright and early at 11am (we do like to sleep in I suppose). 

And walking towards the National Mall where we'll find our first stop of the day. 

It's the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History! We figured this would be one of the National Museums the kids would like the most. Right outside they've got giant petrified logs. And they came from the Petrified Forest in Arizona! We've been there! 

So much stuff to see here! Including a live butterfly pavilion! 

The lobby is pretty incredible with the giant bull elephant as you enter. 

Our first stop is the butterfly pavilion. We knew it was timed entry, but didn't know how popular it would be. There were no more slots left for us to come back today. Doh! We'll have to get up earlier and try again another day. We can still see into the display they've set up though and look at some butterflies. 

We're in the insect/arachnid portion of the museum. Yikes! Brown Recluse spiders and Black Widows! 

Then over to where the butterfly chrysalises are waiting for the butterflies to hatch. 

Can you see the leaf insect? 

Alli doesn't love skeletons. They scare her a little bit. She doesn't like riding Pirates of the Caribbean because of it. So we weren't so sure how she'd do in this next wing that shows the skeletons of many different creatures. 

But that is a really big whale skeleton. 

Next, it's time to explore a little bit of space. Good choice on the shirt today Ian. 

Just because we're here on earth and it's the museum of Natural History, it doesn't mean we don't get visitors from space. Like these giant meteorites made of iron!

How about an actual moon rock. 

It looks like an ordinary rock you might find on earth.

Pretty cool, huh spaceman. 

Wait? Touching an actual piece of Mars? But we haven't even returned any stones from Mars. How did it get here? 

Oh! A meteoroid impact hit Mars a long time ago and it blasted chunks of Mars into space. Eventually some of those chunks made their way to earth! Amazing! 

Checking out some interesting lava formations, where liquid rock forms into different textures. The Hawaiian spirit of Pele inspires a couple of them. Pele's hair is when wind catches the liquid rock and it forms almost cotton candy like bunches. And Pele's tears are droplets that break off from liquid basalt. 

And now it's time to get into the rocks, minerals, and other precious gemstones. Fair warning, Theresa and the kids really like these things. Natural stones that you can find in the ground that look like treasure? Yes please! 

That big thing in the middle is Pyrite Ian. Not gold. 

There's your gold buddy! It's his favorite color, and he was happy to see so many different examples of it. So much of it is from Colorado too! Hey! Remember when we did some gold panning in Colorado? 

Rocks that glow? They look like ordinary rock when the lights are on, but when you hit them with a UV light, they start to floresce! 

There's so many different cool rocks that we can find all over the Americas. 

Azurite in Arizona.

Zincite in New Jersey. 

These might be Crystal Oddities, but they look like hearts to us. Go ahead and get a loving picture together girls. 

Elbaite comes in lots of different shapes and colors. From blues and greens. 

To pinks and purples. 

Whoa! Some crystals that are multi-colored. 

Interesting. Topaz isn't normally blue. It starts as that pale green and then is bombarded with either neutrons or electrons to change the color. It even leaves the stone radioactive for a period of time afterwards! 

So much Topaz.

Who gets to name these minerals? We've got some Cookeite in this picture. 

And Hambergite in this one. I'm getting hungry. 

Some funky shapes of Beryl. 

Those rods are awesome. 

Some pretty diamonds Alli! 

Oh yeah, here we go. Maybe even prettier than diamonds. Opals! Those deep blues and shifting colors. 

Quartz Crystals! From Arkansas! Hey! Remember when we did quartz crystal mining in Arkansas? Twice! That was so much fun! 

We didn't quite pull out anything this big, but it was fun to see such big examples. 

Wow. That's a very vibrant pink Alli. I love it. 

Almost as much as I love the Mineral Rainbow! Those are some amazing colors! 

But this boy likes gemstones. 

Who knew that Elbaite could come in so many unique colors. 

Minerals can grow into so many different funky shapes. 

So many of these specimens are behind glass, and you want to touch it. I love that the Smithsonian did include some larger, less fragile, examples of minerals with "Please Touch" signs on them. 

Cool! Salt is a mineral too. Hey! Remember when we made our own salt in Oregon from Pacific ocean water, just like Lewis and Clark! That was fun! 

Here we go! Some diamonds from America! 

Some pretty big examples. Where did they come from? Crater of Diamonds in Arkansas? We've been there! It's a state park where the public can hunt for diamonds! We didn't have any luck, but there have been plenty who have! 

Mineral, crystal, or gem? 

Everything that we've been seeing is a mineral. A solid, inorganic compound that forms naturally. 

A crystal is when the atoms in those minerals repeats in a pattern. 

A gem is a crystal that has been cut and polished. 

The largest known aquamarine gem.

And since we're here, we've got to visit the Hope Diamond. 

A very pretty blue diamond. 

But there's other important things to consider. Like... what's for lunch? 

Unimpressed by the cafeteria food at the Smithsonian, we instead went looking elsewhere. 

And we found a delicious spot called &pizza! They serve flatbread style pizzas that are big enough to share! 

Yum! 

Next, we're headed out for a walk around the National Mall. That's because it's a special Pokemon day where we can catch special characters. 

We walked along the large grassy area, which was great for catching Pokemon. 

And it's not so busy today that the kids can't run ahead and play. 

Sitting by the pool outside the US Capital Building. 

By 5pm, we were done walking and ready to call it a day. We've been seeing so many food trucks and ice cream trucks today that we decided to treat ourselves at a nearby grocery store. We also learned about delayed gratification, seeing that we could buy one popsicle for a certain price at an ice cream truck, or a whole box of frozen treats if we wait and get them later! And we can get special treats at the grocery store too. 

We also grabbed food to make in the room for dinner. It's been a full day and a fun day.