Museum after museum after museum

Another day in DC, another day at the Smithsonian Institute.  First up was the sculpture garden at the Hirshhorn Museum.  Some people have some interesting stuff going on in their heads.  Nice to know it’s not just me. 

Just our luck to find an empty overcoat on a lovely day

Waiting for a bus ... or an RV ... or something

Had a gander inside the Smithsonian Castle and got to meet James Smithson himself... his crypt anyway.  He died back in 1829 and left a small fortune to America to create an institution for the “increase and diffusion of knowledge”.  What an amazing bequest and 10 out of 10 for the way they’ve gone about it.  Just about all the museums are free of charge and there is pretty much something for everyone. 

Spent a couple of hours in the Museum of American History.  Again, a lot of what is there we’ve seen already on our travels but there is enough that is new and different to keep us entertained.  Plus it’s all presented in different and interesting ways.

Just when you thought you'd seen everything - a can opener cook book

When we eventually left that museum we went for a walk down to the White House.  Walking, we are able to get a lot closer than driving and, due to the season, happened across some workers putting up the annual White House Christmas Tree on the area known as The Ellipse. 

One more museum for the day.  The International Spy Museum.  Unlike the Smithsonian museums there is an entrance fee here and quite a pricey one at that.  It is very well done though.  A lot of information on historical spying and codes – going back to the likes of Caesar, Hannibal and the Trojan Horse of Troy.  There is also a large exhibit on the evil-doers that James Bond has encountered over the 50 years of Bond.  Unsurprisingly there were a few bad guys that I’d never heard of.  Guess I’ll have to watch some of the old movies.

Hiding in plain sight - the International Spy Museum

The infamous poison umbrella

Most of Ian Fleming's Bond stories had the Russians as the bad guys

Spent the next day driving around just outside DC which included a drive by of The Pentagon that neither of us were expecting.  Bit of a bonus as we only got the barest of glimpses from across the Potomac River on the trolley a couple of days previous.  Today we still only got the barest of glimpses, just larger and closer.  Darned fences, trees and traffic.

It's the Pentagon ... truly

Saw an interestingly designed house in the burbs of Bethesda known as the Hobbit House.  Looks like it’s been built for regular sized folk though. 

This was followed up by a visit to Union Hardware who have a mural of Van Gogh’s Starry Night on their wall – made completely out of old door knobs and handles.  Pretty cool huh?

Hard to tell the real from the door knobs

We were thinking of having our picnic lunch under this acorn gazebo but it was too cold for us softies so we ate it sitting in the car in Macy’s car park.  We even went into Macy’s – but only to get to the rest rooms in the mall on the other side.  While we were in the area we decided to check out the longest single span escalator in the Western Hemisphere. 

It just goes and goes and goes

It was at a nearby Metro station but on the wrong side of the ticket barrier for us.  The lovely woman employed at the Metro station took my camera and rode the escalator on our behalf taking photos for us.  In fact, the escalator is so long and the ride took so long, we were starting to wonder if she’d done a runner.  Seriously though, we’ve found the employees of the Metro to be just wonderful.  They have all gone out of their way to be helpful to us these past few days and have helped make our visit to DC a pleasant one.  The little things matter.

Had a brief stop at the National Museum of Health and Medicine.  It’s along the same lines as the Mutter Museum in Pennsylvania with a lot of exhibits that make you glad you haven’t just eaten (we had just eaten).  One of the staff members stopped by us and gave us a lot more information about the exhibits. 

Hands off

Old microscope with two eye pieces

From the museum we headed north to Savage where we parked up and walked over the last surviving wrought iron bridge in, I think, the world.  Definitely in America.  The cold weather meant we didn’t linger and we turned around and headed back to the campground.  On the way we had one last stop, on the campus of the University of Maryland where they have honoured one of their alumni, Jim Henson, with a statue of Jim and his beloved home-schooled frog, Kermit.

Take a good look - it's the last one

We hadn’t quite finished with the Smithsonian and spent all of Saturday at the Natural History Museum.  Didn’t quite get to see all of the exhibits before being ushered out at closing time.  What we did see was pretty impressive.  Loved the section on Human development – we were so close to being extinct ourselves at one stage with a population of about 10,000 adults.  Now, with our population of over 7 billion, it looks like we’ll never leave.  The Neanderthals never stood a chance against Homo Sapiens although I’m pretty sure there’s a few of them still out there with their caveman attitudes.

The little mammal that it's believed all mammals descended from

One of the reasons the Passenger Pigeon became extinct

 

We even got to see the Hope Diamond.  What a history that stone has had.  It was stolen during the French Revolution and miraculously turned up in England one day after the statute of limitations expired giving ownership of the gem to whoever had it in their possession.  Nothing dodgy going on there at all.  Harry Winston, a jeweller from New York, brought the diamond in 1949 and gifted it to the Smithsonian Institute in 1958 for the people of America.

Left Maryland and headed to Virginia, stopping at the National Museum of the Marine Corps at Quantico.  You’d think we’d be over museums by now but nope, keep finding good uns all over the place.  As good as this museum is though (and it is) I personally think the Army Museum at Waiouru tops it (just a little bit of bias going on there).

Exited the rear of this helicopter straight into a raging battle

I think we'd make spiffy marines