WA DC Saturday

This weekend we booked it out of Philly and headed to DC in a tremendous rainstorm. Our hotel was less than a minute from the Pentagon and possibly 2 minutes from Arlington National Cemetery. Driving past so much history and political splendor was incredible! Saturday morning we headed toward the national mall and decided to go visit some of the Smithsonian museums. I guess after being a subscriber to the magazine for so many years I was really looking forward to this!

(This is a picture of the Smithsonian Castle which we didn't go inside since it is an administraitive building now)

Museum of Natural History
We went to the Museum of Natural History first since that is where the dinosaur bones are and had a wonderful time looking at all sorts of stuffed animals (one entire wing was dedicated to animals from different habitats in North America) and of course the huge T-Rex, Allasaur and various other skeletons. We had a nice chat with the kids about creationism vs. natural selection before we went in but it proved to be unnecessary. All they wanted to do was go from exhibit to exhibit and name their favorite dinosaurs (Zak has been able to tell the difference btwn. a T-Rex and an Allasaur since he was 4 - turns out an allasaur has 3 digits, a T-Rex has 2). It was great to see what they had retained from all the dinosaur books I've read to them. I just hope I pronounced all those huge names right.


National Mall

After naps we headed out for dinner and walked around the national mall. Phillip gave a long lecture to the boys about the 3 branches of government and pointed out the buildings each branch worked in. It was totally over their heads but at least we tried. They loved seeing the White House and the secret service men with all their heavy weapons guarding the gates. They also had some fun playing around the various monuments.