WE ARE EXHAUSTED!!!!  The Smithsonian is like Disney World.  You can’t do it all in one day if you tried and if you try to even do half you just fall over by 6:30 and can no longer move your legs… SO….MUCH… TO… SEE!

On tap for today:

The Castle

The Air & Space Museum

Lunch at the native American Museum

The American History Museum

The Natural History Museum

The Portrait Gallery

Dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill

INSANE RIGHT???  We were up and out to have a bite to eat by 7:45 and then off to the Castle.  Thats the main original building in the Smithsonian Theme park.

It was a beautiful walk, nice and Sunny.  We were expecting rain later in the day so we were enjoying our little love of sunshine.  We are only a block away from the mall so the sights on the way were spectacular!  Do you see the Capital Tatie?

The coolest thing about the Castle?   We were there alone!  Not kidding.  How often do you get a whole museum to yourselves?

Sydney gave the Castle a BIG Thumbs up.  LOL

The gardens were just gorgeous.  Even in the winter.

Then it was off to the Museum of Air and Space.  For me, I have to say the coolest thing was seeing the space modules.  We have been watching the Disney Space documentary series at home and to actually get to see the real life ships we have been learning the stories of… That was awesome!  We took a guided tour, which was cool because our tour guide had lots of stories.  But he had so many stories that we only made 3 stops in an hour and a half.  Its one thing to walk for that long.  But stand… that just wears you out.

The Wright Brothers exhibit was cool too.  Our tour guide told us so much more than you get from the plaques.

We finally abandoned out tour guide and set off on our own.  It was time for lunch.  Pretty much everyone had recommended we eat at the Native American Museum Cafe.  So thats where we went, just in time for the rain to hit.  Our fine dining experience was not so great though and we were glad to get out of there.  Too crowded, and the food too confusing!

We were so tired from the standing at Air and Space and we were alittle worried about Sydney’s ankle (being that its still broken) so we decided to take a cab across the mall to American history.  It was Sydney’s first cab ride.  😀

Here our our highlights from the AHM.

Ruby Slippers are a must…

Todd and his absolute love of all things Batman…Hello Julie Newmar!

And Abey Baby’s hand.

Sydney’s favorite parts were the Presidents wing and the First Ladies dresses of course. I also very much enjoyed the Star Spangled Banner exhibit. It made me all patriotic!  But it was getting tight on time and the Museum of Natural History was waiting for us!

There was a whole lot of Grossness at MNH.  Lots of dead things in jars…everywhere!

But we did find ONE live exhibit.  It was stocked full of little Dory’s and Nemo’s.

And an entire room of crochet coral.  That was pretty cool!

We made a B-line right after that and went straight to Jewels.  A girls best friend.

We were all pretty whiped out by then and needed to rest so we found a friend to hang with for a while till we mustered the will to walk the 4 blocks to the Portrait Gallery.  We named him Ringo.  Cause he’s a star baby!

We were about to leave for the Portrait Gallery and were literally almost to the door when Todd remembered we had not seen the dinosaurs!  You can’t come all the way to the MNH and NOT see the dinosaurs.  So back up stairs we went… slowly and painfully.  But it was worth it.

Four very wet rainy blocks later we landed at the portrait gallery.  My favorites were Coolidge (a fine snappy dresser), Lincoln, and George Bush JR & SR (Such warm paintings).  While Sydney was loving the 60’s JFK painting that graced the entrance.   We all agreed that Clintons was just weird.

That’s Benjamin Franklin.  And that’s Todd saying…Hey that’s Benjamin Franklin!

We settled down in the atrium in the Art Museum to discuss the things we learned from our trip.

Here are the lessons we learned today:

1. You need like a whole day per Museum, at least.

2. American indian food… not yum.  Old Ebbitt food… YUM!!!

3. There is a whole lot of taxidermy at the Museum of Natural History.

4.  There are also a lot of things in jars.  And thats a little creepy.

5.  Sydney apparently doesn’t like fish, in jars or in her mouth.

6. Everywhere we go its all Abey Baby all the time.  Its like we are in the year of ABE!  We love it.

7. The Smithsonian has a lot of dark movie theaters to hide out in when you are trying to rest up before the next hike.  Its like they KNOW!

8. Tourists = NICE.  Native DCites = Not so Nice.  🙁

9. You can take a cell phone tour through the museums if you are too lazy to read the plaques.

10.  We can’t wait to come back with Kinsey and Tatie!

Up tomorrow… The Spy Museum and the Temple.  Night loves.