Justins World

Today was a trip to tourist central aka as the mall in Washington DC.  The mall is a lot like our parliamentary triangle back in Canberra. It is where a lot of the museums and political buildings are located.  I started with the Capitol building, which looks a lot like the copy in Havana, which I saw earlier this year!  I also got to see the resident squirrels foraging for food.  I’m all for adding kangaroos to the parliamentary triangle (yes technically the Governor-General has a lot of roos on the lawns of government house).

Capitol Building

I wandered down the mall for my first museum of the day, The Smithsonian Air and Space museum. It is a collection of all things space and flight related.  Rockets, planes and spacecraft are hung from the ceilings, while smaller galleries have smaller exhibits all about space and flight. I walked around for a few hours looking at everything and I think I still missed things.  The best part is it was free, although the security check to get in shows just how different the USA is to the rest of the world.

Air and Space Museum

I then headed to the Smithsonian Natural history museum.  Also free and also with a security check.  In the foyer you are greeted by a huge stuffed elephant.  The mammals gallery is full of stuffed animals.  Its kind of sad that to get people to a museum, stuffed animals are needed. The marine gallery had more skeletons and things in jars and felt more like a museum rather than a freakshow.

stuffed elephant

I went upstairs and they had more skeletons and also some mummies as well.  Another highlight of the museum is the Hope Diamond.  This is where I realised I’m looking at the Hope diamond and next to me was Woody Harrelson. Well the guard recognised him, I was just standing next to him. They also have a butterfly garden which I didn’t pay to go in and I couldn’t see the Tarantula being fed, because all the children were in the way.  That to me is what kids should see, rather than a gallery of stuffed animals.

Hope Diamond

Now I had planned to go further along the mall, but my feet were killing me.  I’ll visit the memorials at the other end tomorrow and maybe pop into Georgetown.  I actually leave 6:30pm Friday so have a lot of Friday to fill in so have moved Arlington Cemetery to then. Tonight I had planned to get some shopping in, but kept getting on the wrong train. I just needed to head south on the yellow line, but instead got onto a green line train. I had to get out go back a station and change to the yellow line.  Then when returning i got onto a blue line train instead of a yellow line train.  To be fair I was at the right platform for both. Just didn’t read the sign….