Dinosaurs and butterflies and ruby slippers! Oh my!
The thing about visiting the Smithsonian is to figure out where the heck to start. Having done Air and Space and the National Art Gallery yesterday, we had a plan to do American History and Natural History today, as they are housed relatively close together although in different buildings.
Of course, I had my heart set on mostly just one thing, which I didn’t realize was the prize of the American History’s “American Stories” collection. But as we turned the corner into the exhibit, there they were, sparkling as though they had just stepped off the yellow bricks of the MGM studio: the original Ruby Slippers.
Well, one of the pairs anyway. There were as many as five pairs, and this is only one of them, the sign along side the exhibit says that the felt on the bottom would have cushioned the sound against the plywood set, so this specific pair was used as Judy danced her way down those yellow bricks and into pop culture history.
So amazing.
Also housed in the same room were Ali’s boxing gloves, the original Elmo puppet, and the chair and table set from All in the Family, as well as a section of the original lunch counter that the civil right’s movement is said to have begun at. It’s amazing to think of all this history all in one room.
One floor up was the military history wing, which I should have known better than to enter as war history does nothing but make me confused and angry, but it was interesting none the less, especially since (at Amras’ insistence) I was able to ‘test my skill’ as a riveter, and was proudly told by the simulator that I would have been hired! I was also – being Canadian – quick to point out the mention of the War of 1812, in which Canada was invaded, and didn’t think much of it and so did something about it…
Anyway
One floor down from the American Stories exhibition was the Martime Exhibition. This time, I knew what I was in for, some things, I check before I enter the building. It was small, just a tiny display – a few photographs, a battered kodak camera….a life jacket, or what passed for a life jacket in those days. Not much, but still…it is what it is. And it still does, and always will, give me chills; in the moment of looking at that life jacket, the rest of the room somewhat falls away…unsinkable they said, unsinkable she was not.
I heard a mother tell her daughter that “there would be something from the Titanic here somewhere
Yes, there is…but not much, the larger collections of Titanic memorabilia are in the Titanic museum and traveling exhibitions, but…it was enough. It’s always enough.
Having done with American history it was time to head down the street to dinosaurs!
The natural history museum was crowded, it’s July and school is out and all the kids want to see Dinosaurs! To reach the exhibition we first had to journey through the “bone hall” which contained skeletons of every kind of creature imaginable, from itty bitty mice that looked more like creations of string and glass than bones, to zebras and giraffes. I wish I could have stayed to take more photographs and read all the plaques, but the crowd swept us along with a mind of its own, and neither one of us is great with crowds. But we braved it through, mostly because I hadn’t seen a proper dinosaur exhibit before. Even over the heads of the dozens of kids, the T-Rex is still astounding…although even they can’t explain one thing: why on earth were the darn creatures arms so short? I mean really, here I am, big ferocious killer thing….little itty bitty arms…what kind of cruel joke is that?
Life’s mysteries
And, quite the opposite of dinosaurs, there was also this:
Probably one of the best photos I’ve ever taken. The Natural history museum has a live butterfly pavilion, and I was lucky enough to have one land close enough to me that the macro lense on my camera kicked in. They also seemed oddly attracted to my glasses, I guess they were shiny…
I love butterflies, they always seem so…joyful. So paying a small extra admission fee to spend some time with them was a very small price to pay. I remember going to Butterfly Gardens when I was little, and I haven’t been in a butterfly pavilion since, I’d forgotten how enchanting they are…
And last but not least, there was one more thing to see…or at least catch a glimpse of through the throngs of people pressing their nose against its case.
They say the Hope Diamond is cursed. I can’t speak to that (although I’m certainly not going to be in a position to touch it any time soon and therefore will never find out), but I can say that it’s beautiful. It sits in the middle of the gemstone collection, spinning slowly and elegantly on its lone stand behind glass. It’s easy to believe the legends that it was once the all-seeing eye of a hindu goddess shrine. I think if you had the opportunity to get a better look at it, even a look through the glass without twenty people jostling you for space, you would find yourself lost in that deep deep blue…
Having had enough of the crowds and the dinosaur bones, we headed back out into the head, bought more water, and started walking. Eventually, we ended up at the most famous residence in Washington. After all, you can’t really visit DC and not at least get a look at the White House, although a look is all you can get, the secret service keep prying eyes and nosy visitors several feet away even from the main fence. But it was enough for us to snap our pictures and say at least that we’d been there, before hopping a cab to the Capitol building in the misguided hope of seeing the Declaration of Independence (which we later found out was in fact in the National Archives Building, a fact we both somehow missed) – and actually ending up in the Library of Congress
Where I saw Jefferson’s Library
Cue geeker squeal of joy
The whole place smelled like old books, Amras had to remind me not to breathe so deeply that I actually fell over.
So, Many. Books!
SO MANY!
Could I just stay here? Would that be okay? I wouldn’t read anything, I’d just sit there and breathe them in and …exist.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay in that big beautiful building forever. And it had started to pour down rain outside. So we went to the gift shop to buy rain ponchos, only to discover the gift shop only took cash, and we were out of cash, having used the last of ours on lunch and simulator rides at the museum. So…no ponchos for us…
What’s that the song says? If you like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain?
Ah well, at least we cooled off!