Washington DC Days 3 and 4: Five Museums and a zoo

So we are still in Washington DC.  It is still sweltering hot mixed with humidity. By the time we are back in Oregon, it is going to feel like a cold front.

Yesterday we woke up bright and early because we had to be at the White House by 8:15 AM.  This is my fourth time to DC (early 1980's--I think '81?, 1992, and 2004) and I never gotten into the White House until this trip.  So this was a pretty big deal.  It is a self guided tour and taking pictures is encouraged, but you cannot bring anything else with you.

I think I appreciated all the portraits and artwork.  Our favorite room was the "green room."

We viewed various dining rooms and meeting rooms--most are still used to this day and contain furniture and artwork from previous presidencies.

After the White House we headed to the National Holocaust Memorial Museum.  You cannot walk through this museum without feeling confused, distraught, and broken by what happened to the Jewish population in Europe in the 1930's.   I was not sure how our experience would be with young children.  Will they take it seriously?  Will they understand the horrors of these events?

The museum does a fabulous job of helping children understand the Holocaust by first going to an exhibit specifically geared for kids called, "Daniel's Story."  After viewing this exhibit we went through the main exhibit that first began with the US troops entering the concentration camps after liberation.

Our kids did amazing.  Our oldest has read several books based on the Holocaust and shown an interest in this time in history.  While the younger two did not read every single exhibit sign, they really grasped the horrors of the event  Our oldest said seeing the train car and thinking that so many victims were crammed inside it was eye opening.

After the Holocaust museum, we were looking for a place to eat lunch.  We stumbled across the Farmer's Market right in front of the USDA building.  We split some wood fired pizzas and took advantage of the free cold water.  This picture was taken right before guards told us we could not picnic on the lawn.

After lunch we visited the American History museum.  We did not have a ton of time so we picked and chose what we wanted to see.  I especially enjoyed the technology exhibits especially showing the kids what computers looked like in my day.

Our son enjoyed giving an inaugural speech in the Presidential exhibit while myself and the girls looked at the First Ladies' dresses...in which they had some strong opinions of some of the first lady fashion.  I think hands down they liked Michelle Obama's dress the best.

The youngest especially enjoyed seeing some of the first Bert and Ernie puppets from Jim Henson's Sesame Street...as well as Rubber Duckie.

 We had dinner at a Greek restaurant close to our hotel.  The youngest has a look of concern on her face because she wanted to grab water versus having her picture taken  Apparently the meatballs were pretty spicy to her taking. I am thankful  the kids are willing to try different kinds of foods so we don't have to settle for Mc Donalds and hot dogs for every meal.

This morning we did not have to be anywhere early and had no scheduled tours.  We decided to go to the zoo since this is one thing the youngest wanted to do.  I have never been to the DC zoo.  We always justified that we have gone to zoos everywhere else--why go to this one where they are many other museums to see?  But I am really glad we went.  It was well worth it.

The panda exhibit was impressive.  I believe this is the only zoo in the country with pandas.  We learned how difficult (and unsuccessful!) it has been to breed pandas.  One of the female pandas was celebrating her birthday today and was eating a bamboo style birthday cake.

All the exhibits were great but I especially liked the small mammal house with the large sloth.

This has been the routine all week--fill up the water bottle with ice and it melts quickly.  Drink water every 10-15 minutes.  No one has had heat stroke or dehydration.  We have handled it quite well.

After lunch Rob and the youngest went to the Smithsonian Art Natural Gallery of Art thinking he was going to the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.  The first museum included lots and lots of portraits.  He and the youngest stayed there about an hour and a half and then walked all the way to the Museum of American Art braving a thunderstorm and pouring rain on the way.  At the second museum they saw many well known paintings by American artists.

The youngest's favorite art pieces were the portraits of all the presidents.

I along with the older two went to the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian.  Again this museum was new to me and something my son was especially interested in.  Being short on time, we picked and chose our exhibits.  We were impressed with the kids learning area that had many hands on activities.  Our kids learned how to make Indian style pottery.

We learned about many Native American art pieces and the specific parts of the country they came from.  We learned about the various tribes and their history in the United States.

The Nation to Nation exhibit helped us understand the treaty problems between the American settlers and the Indian tribes.  The exhibit posted both viewpoints and cultural differences.  There are organizations today seeking to preserve the Native American culture.

Now we are experiencing more rain which we are somewhat used to but thunder and lightning which is more unfamiliar to us.  Tomorrow we say good-bye to DC and make our way by train to New York City.