You betcha we are visiting the Smithsonian Museums!

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How can we not visit the entirely free Smithsonian Museums on the DC National Mall?!?!  There are so many of them.  With 100 days at our disposal, we have been able to visit each one at our leisure often spending several days in each one.  This visit is so different from the rushed we-gotta-see-it-all in one week vacation! Rather than inundate you with lots of photos, we have chosen a few from each of the museums we have visited thus far.

National Museum of American History - Donna's favorite.

Julia Child the famous chef donated her iconic kitchen to the Smithsonian more than 20 years ago. Her hit show - The French Chef - was on the air for 10 years.  She hosted many other shows in the years following.  She had an expert yet easy going approach to cooking and would often shrug off with good humor any cooking mishaps on her shows.  She once tickled a lobster and marked out cuts of meat on her own body to grab the interest of her audience.  Everything in her kitchen had its place including the pots and pans on the wall that were outlined with marker for return after use.

Did you know that she worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) the precursor to the CIA?  The agency was created to collect intelligence during World War II.  She joined after being turned down by the Army and Navy for being too tall - 6'2".  While she was not identified as a spy, she did work on developing shark repellant for pilots downed at sea.  In case you're wondering, it had limited success.


Don quit climbing on the exhibits!

National Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport - Don's favorite.  It's massive.

National Museum of Natural History




U.S. Holocaust Museum - walking through this museum was a very moving experience.
American Art Museum and Renwick Art Gallery - both had very interesting art.
This sculpture is made out of aluminum foil.
This string art was on the ceiling and changed colors.  It was best seen while laying on the floor underneath it.
Don likes the hare.  He misses his own! Huh?!
This entire sculpture was hand-carved from a single block of laminated mahogany - even the sheet! 
We mentioned in a previous blog how cold January was.  Well, the ponds around the city had frozen.  Don took this opportunity to skip a piece of ice across one.  It made a musical/ringing sound as it skittered across the frozen top.  Boys will be boys..... Even the geese had fun walking/slipping across the ice.

No blog is complete without the requisite pictures of food and beverage.  Cheers!
Local craft beer!
Yummy carrot cake!
Ted's Bulletin restaurant - The whole cinnamon roll was as large as your head!
Less than two weeks left here.  More posts of our sightseeing are coming soon.

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