September 23, 2006

September 23, 2006

Today we again went down to the Mall to finish our tour of the Smithsonian Museums. There are many Smithsonians spread out around Washington. We are interested and only have time for a few. The Metro stops next to the National Archives so we run in there first. They have a special exhibit on "Eyewitness" accounts of important events in history. Aimee finds it interesting and I eventually have to drag her out. We then take a quick peak in the Rotunda at the original Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Disappointingly the Declaration of Independence is so faded and blurred that it is now unreadable. Even John Hancock’s large flashy signature! We later learn that it started fading soon after it was written and an engraving of it was made in 1823 so its look could be preserved.

We then walk to the Natural History Museum and spend a few hours breezing thru its exhibits. They are pretty good but we don’t really have the desire to spend days in this museum alone. One amusing area is the Insect Zoo. They have some live specimens of unusual bugs. They even have a petting zoo where you can hold some of these creatures. Aimee though doesn’t want anything to do with voluntarily touching a giant cockroach.

We walk towards the American History Museum but find it closed for renovations. We only have an hour or so left before the museums close so we make a run thru the National Gallery of Art. They have a nice general collection but I would have thought they would have had a larger section of American artistic works. They don’t.