National Museum of Natural History / Natural Gallery of Art Sculpture

We went to the National Museum of Natural History today. This is the only day that Kevin and Justin have off for spring break at the same time. We had originally planned to visit the Bureau of Engraving and Printing - arriving before 9:00 am, but the tickets for the day had already been given out. The boys pose with Henry, the elephant in the rotunda of the Natural History Museum.

The Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals exhibit A tiger pounces above us as we enter the mammals exhibit Justin poses with a hippo - what a mouth! Kevin and Justin are excited to ‘play’ in the Discovery room, when they can explore real museum objects hands-on Justin uses a magnifying glass to look at creatures of the sea Kevin uses a microscope to magnify very tiny objects Justin opens a drawer with a collection of items from Mali Kevin explores a drawer of shed snake skins We run into Emily, a classmate of Kevin's, and her family at the fossils exhibit After a couple of hours, the boys were ready to leave. Brian was fast asleep, and the museum was getting very crowded. We saw most of the exhibits on the first floor, and will be coming back soon to see more.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART SCULPTURE GARDEN

We decided to visit the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden before going back home. It has been over three months since we were last here. This time, Justin had a map of the garden which showed a picture of each of the 17 sculptures. We had to find each sculpture so he could circle it on his map. This is a Typewriter Eraser made of stainless steel and cement (the kids had no frame of reference as to what it was).

Spider sculpture made of bronze with silver nitrate patina Kevin and Justin sit at the Six-Part Seating sculpture made of polished granite We also have a map of the 40 different trees planted in this garden. It will be nice to look at and learn about the variety of trees on our next visit.