Hail Hail Washington

For quite a few years I lived in and around Washington DC and it's been a goal of mine to take a trip with my family there ever since my sons were born. Compared to our own home town there is just a lot more to do.

I have only driven through Washington DC 2 or 3 times myself and have found it's better to get around town on the Metro system. When I was a kid the city streets looked so huge and that was with the big cars of the 1970's and 80's. But now that I have to drive I think a lot of Washington city streets would have a hard time negotiating a little red wagon much less an average sized car.

So my strategy is to go to one of the suburban Metro subway stations, most of which have parking, and then ride the train into town. So a few weekends ago I packed up my sons and headed for Springfield, VA. We wanted to take a two day trip so we could see a bit more of the sights.

So we made the 6.5 hour drive up and parked at the Metro station. The nice thing about the parking deck here is that it has a lot of surveillance and is patrolled regularly. I've never had any trouble parking there. I've actually had more trouble in my home town. Unfortunately I had not checked the weather forecast when I packed. Instead of temperatures in the 50-60s we got up there and the temps were in the 30s with ice packed all over the ground. Good old Washington DC weather.

The one downfall of the Metro, if there is one, is that the weekend schedule on trains makes it so that trains only move out of a station once every 12 minutes and then take about 42 minutes to get to the Smithsonian/National Mall station. In addition to this they were doing track work this past weekend on about every train line which through in more delays. I had gotten the boys up at 3:30 in the morning on the chance we might make the opening of the Air and Space Museum, but with breaks along the way we missed the free IMAX show they have there to start the day. But that's what happens when you travel with a 7 and 8 year old.

On the plus side though getting into the city via Metro on the weekend only costs $3 per person regardless of the station you are going to. On holidays (4th of July) and weekdays that rate goes up to nearly $6 a person. Regardless, staying out of traffic and giving two boys a thrilling ride on the subway was worth it. They would make noises every time the subway zipped below ground and then shot back out again.

Our first stop was the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. This used to be one of my favorite museums. But with the opening of the National Aquarium, Smithsonian American Indian Museum, and others the Natural History Museum seems a little redundant at times. The boys thought the dinosaur bones and ancient mammals (Giant Sloth, Mammoth, Sabretooth Tiger) were all very cool. Then there was the strange exhibit on African culture. Which I understand in the matter that Natural history continues, but it didn't make much on a connection with the "natural" part. If there's going to be an exhibit on Modern history how about making them related more to the challenges of resource preservation and environmental challenges. There was also a nice little exhibit on Korean art and culture, but it just seemed out of place.

Our next stop in Natural History was the oceans exhibit. This was a large space that just had lost its charm. Even our own local aquarium does a better job on this subject and there was very little information on island formation, ocean currents, garbage and pollution. It was just like a diorama on sea life. The next section I believe was the evolution of man. When I was a kid these were a lot less sterile and were more interesting. Sure you want to throw in the various stages of man but it's difficult to make a connection with a copy of fossils free standing in a glass box. The boys really enjoyed the digital camera that could turn your face into a neanderthal or cave man. They also enjoyed talking to the Smithsonian volunteer about the fossils that showed threats to ancient humans, such as a boys leg bone with crocodile bites and the cave man who had surgery on his skull. But I remember when the Natural History museum had dioramas of ancient civilizations. Now it's like a big gap exists.

From that section we went onto modern animals section. This was okay, but we were hoping to see a lot of the real animals at the National Zoo the next day. We quickly went up to the second floor and knocked out the astronomy section, which was interesting but had less information than we see through TV, more Hubble photos and details on the life cycles of planets and stars would have been good. We then went into the Hall of Bones, on the way to the Ancient Egypt exhibit. The Hall of Bones was the most boring and redundant thing in the museum. The Ancient Egypt exhibit was dull. The boys enjoyed the insect exhibit, but it was a lot better 30 years ago. And by the time they got to the gems and minerals section of the museum they were nearly in revolt.

So we marched over to the National Gallery of Art. This museum is stunning and I loved going through it with my older son Caleb. He's really into art and we had a lot of discussions about the various pieces. The art spans from the late Medieval period up into the 1800s, with a small section on early 1900s. However as much fun as it was to go through the museum with Caleb, my youngest son Colby was doing his best to push our buttons. He'd do those heavy "Imboredanddonthavevideogame" sighs that kids do and flop down onto every couch or bench in the place. The museum was great though, my only regret was that I wasn't more studied on the artists and the works. But thankfully the NGA has a great website about all the art work and even has an online tour.

After the NGA we headed off to the Air and Space Museum, but I'll save all that for another post.