D.C. - Day 6 & 7

Friday morning we made our way to the National Zoo. We had enjoyed really awesome weather the majority of the week, but this day was by for the hottest and most humid. At 8 am we were already sweaty! The website said the zoo opened at 8 am, but none of the animals were let out until 9. Very annoying.

It was an OK zoo, but not the best. They focus on endangered animals, and so don't have a lot of the "cool" ones. The Tigers, Pandas, Gorillas, Orangutans, and Elephants were all awesome though. The biggest problem was probably just that the week was finally catching up with us. We were dragging for sure.

From the zoo we took the metro to Union Station, a cool huge station with a beautiful and massive main room. Lots of shops and restaurants too. Almost like a mall.

We grabbed a bite to eat before moving on to the Museum of Natural History. The big thing we wanted to see in the museum were the dino bones. But, once we got in and looked at a map we found out they only had a tiny dinosaur exhibit. They're in the process of building giant one but it won't be finished until fall of 2019. Total bummer.

We did stumble onto a docent lead tour group and decided to follow them around for the remainder of the tour.

Highlights =

1. The Hope Diamond. The largest blue diamond in the world, about the size of a quarter, and one of the most visited items in any museum in the world.
2. Some star dust (found in a meteor rock) older than the galaxy. Whoa! Pretty cool.
3. The world's largest pure crystal ball (about the size of a blow up beach ball) was also awesome.

Overall I enjoyed the museum, we were just a bit tired to fully appreciate it. I think we made it back to the hotel at 4 pm, by far the earliest we had turned in. It felt good to relax at the hotel though.

That evening at around 7:30 another college teammate and her hubs drove in from Richmond to see us. They picked us up and we went to dinner at what turned out to be kind of a dud of a restaurant. We dad to sit outside in the hot heat, the food was way overpriced and not that great, nor was the service anything special... so annoying. We went and got gelato afterwords though and everything was right in the world again.

Saturday morning we decided to hit up one last museum, The National Art Gallery, before flying out. I may be criticized for saying this, but the coolest part of the Gallery may have been the building itself. So pretty! It was cool browsing around seeing some of the artists and paintings I had learned about in my various art classes. At one point I was pointing out different aspects of a painting explain things to John and a guard lady came over and got me in trouble. I guess you're not supposed to gesture at the paintings. Who knew?

All these museums were pretty awesome though. There are a bunch we didn't even get to. They're all owned by the Smithsonian Institute, all free, and all have volunteers everywhere providing information and tours. Even at the zoo. D.C. in general is just awesome that way. Everything is free and open to the public. Pretty sweet place to vacation for us cheapos.

Anywho. We only stayed at the art gallery for about an hour before having to leave to catch our flight. I don't think I can say enough good things about D.C. It completely exceeded my expectations and I ended up REALLY enjoying it. It's probably been my favorite city to visit thus far. I highly recommend taking a trip if you are able.