School - Fieldtrip Style

Chris took Friday off so that we could take a school trip to Washington D.C. We left early in the morning and got there around lunch time. After checking in at our hotel, we took a shuttle to the nearest Metro station to ride the subway into downtown. This picture was taken before the Metro went underground, the kids really like how it goes from above ground to underground, to under water (when crossing the river), to above ground again.


This is a cool picture of a subway train coming. While on the 45 min. ride into downtown, I read the kids a fictional story about a robbery at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing as that was to be our first stop in D.C.
We really enjoyed the tour at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. We got to see how they make paper money (which actually is not made of paper but a combination of linen and cotton). We also learned that they no longer make bills larger than $100 and that money that has been cut by hand is still usable (the cutter broke while we were there and the worker was cutting the bills with scissors). The whole tour really took the wow factor out of money making and made it seem like just another manufacturing process, which Chris loved of course.

Next, we walked over to the National Mall for a picture with the Capitol and Washington Monument for our wall of famous places we've been to.

Then to the Smithsonians. This is the first Smithsonian museum, called The Castle, it is now the Information Center, but the building is beautiful.
This huge African Elephant is in the lobby of the National Museum of Natural History. We read a write up about him that says he was the largest elephant ever to live. About 5 tons larger than most African Elephants. Our first stop was to see the Dinosaurs and the Hall of Paleobiology. Everyone loved the life size dinosaur bones. Next we walked through the Hall of Human Origins where Jared made a Neanderthal version of himself on the computer. Then we went to the Hall of Mammals. The kids loved this of course.


This walrus is HUGE!
And this Grizzly Bear is really scary!

Next we went upstairs to the Insect Zoo to see the Butterflies. This exhibit was interesting because the insects were actually alive. There were some really neat specimens in there.

Then, tucked away just out side the Insect Zoo, where no one seemed to notice were three small cases with two REAL MUMMIES and their other burial items! I really couldn't believe it, the kids were too impressed, but I just couldn't stop looking at these Mummies from around 200 B.C. that were just sitting there behind glass in this museum with people walking by like it was no big deal. This one in the picture was still wrapped, but the other one wasn't wrapped, it was just very dry and very preserved. I could've stayed there for hours just looking and pondering about how old these items were and how sacred they were to the people who originally buried them. Unfortunately, the kids were not as impressed and were a little creeped out by the unwrapped one.

Next we went to the Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals to see the Hope Diamond. The kids were not impressed with it much (they thought it should be much bigger), but I thought it was beautiful in it's newly designed and temporary setting.We finished our tour with a quick trip into the Ocean Hall, but were rushed out by a security guard before we were able to see the largest Giant Squid, we did get to see a huge whale though before the museum closed. It was a great field trip and we learned a lot more than we ever could have in one day at home.