Washington DC Trip Day 2

Day 2 was a full day for Team Rodgers.

We are officially Metro riding pros. We can navigate the map and switch lines with the best of them. It's a fantastic system here.

This morning we walked a few blocks to Ceasar's Diner for breakfast. It was pretty delicious. A few more blocks took us to the Metro station. It took us across the river and dropped us off right in the middle of the National Mall.

Today we hit the Museum of Natural History.

They had fish, I knew it was going to be a good day. They had tons of fish and ocean critters on display.

But nothing can hold a candle to Nemo,

And Dory.

This was a special exhibit. This artist made these to mimic the bioluminescence of deep sea creatures. I loved it. They looked like giant jelly fish.

Beautiful.

They had a whole exhibit about what it means to be human, and how we evolved to get where we are today. We discovered some of Jon's ancestors...

Only a nerd can appreciate this part. It was talking about evolution and what we have to deal with today, mainly the diseases and such. It's glass microbes! Influenza virus, HIV, bubonic plague...they were amazing!

I want some. Really bad, these are way cooler than the plushie ones on the internet.

Yay giraffes.

I'm learning how a lion's claws work. RAWR!

T-Rex...they really had a little bit of everything.

Jon's favorite is the stegosaurus.

Oh, and I've decided I need something of my own to compete with the Hope Diamond. This is the temporary setting that the public voted on. It's going to be returned to it's historical setting in the next month or so. It's pretty, real pretty.

We saw rocks. Colored rocks.

Square rocks.

Even glow in the dark rocks.

They had a preview of an exhibit that was coming soon, the Egyptian exhibit..I'm a little sad we missed it.

They have insects. I don't like bees. These bees have their hive right here, down below there is a tube that goes through the wall of the museum so they can go outside and get pollen...so basically the Smithsonian is spewing bees..you've been warned.

Black widow.

They have an indoor butterfly garden. The Butterfly Princess insisted that we see it (he's on the right). We've been in one before when we went to the Omaha zoo.

This butterfly was huge!

They raise them in the museum, so they have a constant supply of butterflies.

Pretty.

It didn't take all day so we headed across the Mall to look around in the Smithsonian Castle. It didn't have much, but it was a really neat building.

We headed back to the room to get ready for dinner with Jon's aunt and uncle. It was so nice to finally meet them. We had a great time. We ate at Morton's Steakhouse. I had chicken, but it was the best chicken I may have ever had in my life.

Tomorrow is still up in the air. If the weather is nice we are going back to the Mall to visit all the monuments. If the weather is not nice, we'll be going back to the Mall to visit another museum..probably the Air and Space Museum. Either way, it's going to be a good day.

Jessica