Washington D.C. Part 3 Smithsonian Museums

As I have previously wrote, the Smithsonian" isn't just one museum. It is 19 museums and 9 research centers. I am only going to concentrate this post on the Museums in the downtown/ National Mall area. I have been to 10 of the museums. I have been to most of them more than once. During business hours on a vacation to D.C. I am usually in the Smithsonian Museums.
If you plan on a trip to Washington D.C. everything you could ever want to know about the Smithsonian from directions, hours, and exhibits can be found on the Smithsonian website. I can only hope to give short descriptions and helpful tips in a short blog post.

Here is a list of Smithsonian Museums

1. Smithsonian Castle- visitor center, you can get your questions answered there.
2. African Art Museum
3. Air and Space Museum
4. American Art and Portrait Gallery
5.American Indian Museum
6. American History Museum
7. Anacostia Community Museum
8. Freer Gallery of Art
9. Hirshhorn Museum and Garden
10. Natural History Museum
11. Postal Museum
12. Renwick Gallery
13. Sackler Gallery
14. National Zoo

I have not been to the Renwick Gallery or the Anacostia Community Museum so I will not waste your time trying to explain them. I wanted to go to the Renwick Gallery last time I was in D.C. but ran out of time.

General Advice:

All Smithsonian's are FREE of Charge. I think that is awesome. Some of the best museums in the world and they are FREE!!! For the most part the museums are open from 10-5:30. There are some exceptions, the zoo for instance stays open until 6 pm during the summer. The American Art Museum and Portrait Gallery is open until 7 pm. The Museum of Natural History is open until 7:30 pm during certain days. It would certainly be a good idea to check each museum for their specific openings before you leave on vacation.

These museums are huge! Do not plan on hitting the Natural History and the American History in the same day unless you want to see highlights only. I suggest getting floor plans of each museum before you go and crossing off the rooms and exhibits you don't want to see before you go. For example I love American History but I was not interested in the power machinery room or the " Lighting a Revolution Room" so I skipped them. Also remember the museums are so huge your feet WILL hurt after a few hours. Its best to see what you want and either skim through what you don't want to see or skip them completely.

If you don't carry a bag into the museum you can walk through the scanner without having to waste time for a bag search.

Most of the museums have cafeterias. The food is overpriced and the portions are small. Plan accordingly.

Many of the museums have docent led tours. I advise you not to take them. The museums are so big, and the docents only hit highlights. The tours typically last 1-1/2 hours. In that time you could have seen 5 times more than what they show you. Don't get me wrong, if you want to know the Hope Diamond intimately and learn all about its history, the docent will be very informative. I would prefer to look at it for a minute then look at the other jewels in the room. Some jewels belonging to Marie Antonette are in the same room.

Individual Museum Advice:

Air and Space- This is the most visited museum in the world. I guarantee you will see buses for field trips lined up outside ( even in the summer for YMCA, Boy's Club, Girls Club, etc...) Air and Space houses many of the famous aircraft throughout American History. The Wright Brothers plane is there. So is Chuck Yeager's X-1, the plane that broke the sound barrier. One of Amelia Earhart's plans and the fastest plane ever ( SR-71 Blackbird) are all housed in the museum. A couple of the more famous space modules and nuclear weapons are on display. There are also many rooms devoted to aviation. I like history much more than aviation. I found the planes and space modules awesome, but wish I didn't spend hours reading all the aviation stuff. I could have enjoyed my Air and Space experience more if I spent 90 minutes instead of 1/2 day there. If you love aviation you will find it hard to leave.

Natural History- Quite Honestly, I don't know why Natural History isn't the most popular museum in the world. It has something for everyone. For stereotypical kids there are fossils of all finds of things from T-Rex and an entire triceratops, ancient fish, to full size mastodons and woolly mammoth. For rock collectors, there are rocks, minerals and jewels so big and so colorful they will blow your mind. Not to mention moon rock and many meteorites. There are rooms full of skeletons from all types of animals from fish to mammals. There are mummies and ancient artifacts. There is something for everyone. At one of the entrances there is a head from Easter Island, that's right, Easter Island, the only one in the United States. It is tough to spend less that a full day at this museum and not feel like you missed stuff. Unfortunately, fatigue and boredom from reading all day will set in, but the National Museum of Natural History is awesome.

American History- This giant 3 story museum is right next to the Natural History Museum. Do not try to do them both in a day. Of all the museums, this one would be the best to have a pre-printed floor plan and a plan for the day. The aspects of American History are so different I doubt anyone would be interested in every room. Of course my favorite rooms were the American Presidency and the Price of Freedom. I did not go into Musical Instruments or Stories of Money for more than a couple minutes. The treasures of Pop Culture is very popular. I wish they would make it bigger. There are so many greats in movies and sports its a shame to limit the artifacts by such a small space.

National Zoo- The zoo is about 5 miles north of the mall. It is a tough bike ride if that is your mode of transportation. It is a big zoo with a lot of animals. Until recently, pandas made there home there. The highlights are probably the lions and tigers. The bird aviaries are cool too. My highlight as read on my May 17 blog post is the wood ducks in the pond near the bird house http://southernnewenglandoutdoors.blogspot.com/2010/05/washington-dc-white-squirrel-white.htmldc-white-squirrel-white.html

The zoo is well worth the trip if you have transportation, you won't be disappointed unless you live in San Diego or the Bronx.

American Art Museum and Portrait Gallery- This is my favorite Smithsonian. Both of theses museums are in the same building. The only thing separating them is a center atrium. Although I admit the Natural History Museum is more "exciting", I love going to this one. If you remember your history books, you had pictures of famous people. Whether it be great presidents like Washington, Jefferson, or FDR, or frontiersmen like Lewis and Clark, Davy Crockett or a host of other famous Americans, the picture from your history book is most likely in the Portrait Gallery.

Being in the American Presidents wing of the Portrait Gallery is awe inspiring. Its one of those places I feel like I am in the presence of greatness. There are rooms dedicated to explorers, Civil War heros and other great Americans. This museum is open until 7:30 so you can go to other museums first then come here during the evening. Its worth going to more than once anyway. It is not on the mall but a few blocks north, near the Museum of Crime and Punishment.

American Indian Museum- is the newest Smithsonian ( at least until African American History and Culture opens) . Considering how much I enjoy history and how much I feel Native Americans got screwed, I did not enjoy this museum at all. I expected full size pictures of great warriors like Geronimo and Sitting Bull. Instead there was much Native American crafts.There was a lot of contemporary art made by Indians. There were some conquistador swords and Spanish gold, but for the most part I am sorry to say, I found it boring.

Freer, Sackler and African Art- These museums although very different have a connection. That's right an underground tunnel connects them. Freer and Sackler both have Asian Art ,while African Art has, well your smart enough to figure that out! I went to these three one afternoon my second time in the Capitol. I was pleasantly surprised. I went through each in about an hour. I didn't read to much about the museum pieces. Just the basics like year, which dynasty ( Chinese) and stuff like that. I enjoyed these three galleries without burning out my brain with information overload. I found these galleries a quiet, refreshing change of pace from the big, loud, crowded museums.

Postal Museum- This museum is near Union Station. This important because it means you can get a delicious lunch after you go to the museum. The Postal Museum is what you would expect. It has a stamp collection, an exhibit dedicated to the Pony Express, a mail truck and other modes of mail transportation.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden- has modern art. I did not spend enough time in here to give you any idea what to expect. The sculpture garden outside is nice. There are sculptures from the pretty cool to the ridiculous. Walking through the sculpture garden is another of those change of pace things to do.

That is a rundown of the Smithsonian's I have been too. The National Gallery of Art is on the mall and it takes up two building. The West Building is as large as American History and Natural History. It however is not a Smithsonian Museum. It is a great place and I will talk about it extensively later.

Washington DC/ White Squirrel/ White Whale/ and Wood Ducks

Okay, that is a long nonsense name for a blog post. Unlike Lewis Carrol ( Alice in Wonderland ) by the end of this post it will all make sense. Last week I went to Washington DC. I spent most of my time in free Smithsonian Museums during the day, and looking at monuments after the museums closed. Since this blog is about southern New England Outdoors and since Washington DC is not in New England and the inside of a museum is not outdoors I may or may not write another entry about my DC visit. Still following along? Good... lets get started.

If you know the story of Moby Dick, you know that Capt. Ahab was obsessed with killing the white whale. It got to the point where it destroyed and ( spoiler alert) ultimately ended his life.

I have my own version of a white whale... it is ( and it is okay to laugh) the wood duck. In the same way that Ahab chased the whale, I have been trying for YEARS to get a perfect picture of a wood duck. This may sound like a ridiculous goal, but every chance I have gotten for a photo ended... without a photo. My obsession is not like the good captain, I still have other interests and still fall asleep thinking about the Red Sox, Celtics and Jessica Simpson. I will not be destroyed by the humble duck, nor will I feel my life was incomplete without a great picture. I will feel my photo album is incomplete without a great picture, so it is a small obsession.

Why is getting a picture of a duck so difficult? I knew you would ask. First off I have very good cameras, my film camera has a 300 mm lens, and my digital has a 20 zoom, however wild wood ducks are shy. Unlike a mallard, they stay far away from people. I have seen wood ducks take flight from across a pond when I have come into there line of site. On larger lakes they stay so far away that even with the big lens they take up a tiny part of the picture.

There are wood ducks at Roger Williams Park, that are fairly comfortable around people, I have tried to get them many times. There would always be a reason why I couldn't get a good shot. The light may be bad or a kid would throw a rock in the water as the duck was getting close enough for a full shot, there was always something. What does this have to do with Washington DC? You are asking great questions today!

At the National Zoo in ( you guessed it ) Washington DC, right next to the bird house are a couple of very small ponds. In these ponds are usually wood ducks. These ducks though wild make for a great photo opportunity. Why? Because the ducks are used to people so they don't spook, also the ponds are close to the paved trail and as before mentioned...tiny.

This was my third time going to Washington DC and the zoo. Last time I went to the zoo ( 5 years ago ) the ducks were in these pools. Why didn't I get a good picture? Wouldn't you know it, I took 15 rolls of film that trip, I was all excited about getting my glorious shots and BOOM my camera breaks. I am not making this up, The FIRST picture I try to take of the ducks, the button jammed and I couldn't take any pictures. As it turns out, the problem was just that, a jam. That night in the hotel room after playing with it for a minute ( the camera, get your mind out of the gutter, this is a family friendly blog! ) it popped up and all was well, except I DID NOT get my wood duck picture.

On this trip going to the zoo was not part of the itinerary. It is about 5 miles from downtown and on bike, that makes for a long seemingly dangerous ride stopping at every intersection and dodging cars trying to take rights on red. On Wednesday we had two things planned, going to the Postal Museum and Explorers Hall. Both of these museums took less time then planned so at 1:30 we were done with our day. Since Explorers Hall is to the north of the other attractions and so is the zoo maybe I could get my wood duck picture.

I have felt cursed by my bad luck with the white whale of a duck ( I know it makes no sense but I like it) so on my ride to the zoo my fear was my new camera would break when we got there. So we finally get to the zoo, go straight towards the bird house area and the ponds. Wood ducks were in the ponds so I had a chance. I realized right away these ducks were feeding. This meant they were in a constant state of motion. It was hard to get a perfectly centered pic, without sun glare of these moving ducks. I spent about 20 minutes taking about 75 pictures. Of the seventy five, about 20 were blurry or only showed part of the duck, 50 were acceptable photos, and I am proud to say I got 5 that I would consider blowing up into an 8x10. After all these years, mission accomplished

So this explains the Washington DC/ White Whale/Wood Duck part of the blog. The white squirrel is a whole lot shorter. DC is full of small parks and a large one called our National Mall. There are a lot of squirrels, and unlike the grey and red species of squirrels here in MA, the grey squirrels in DC have many color phases. I have seen grey , black, and white color phases and my favorite grey with a red tail. Here are some pictures