Washingon DC - Day 5

Day 5 - Today we have a light agenda - Natural History Museum, Pentagon, Washington Nationals baseball game

We started the day going to breakfast at this deli across the street called West Wing Café.  They had hot and cold sandwiches and three of us got the Egg McMuffin - sausage, egg, and cheese on an English Muffin, but it was better than McDonalds'.  The egg was like a small omelet.  They also had
fresh fruit and a variety of drinks. I recommend it.


So then we went to the Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian about one mile from our hotel on the north side of the mall.  We arrived on the ground floor which did not seem to have any exhibits, so made our way upstairs to the first floor where a huge Elephant is in the middle on the foyer.  On this floor we saw the dinosaur collection (mostly re-creations of dinosaurs instead of the actual fossilized bones (which were on the top floor)).  Then we went through an exhibit on Africa, Sea Creatures, and Mammals.  Some of the more interesting pictures or cute ones are below.  Shellie did not like the deep sea creatures or giant arthropods.  "Gross," she said.

Hope Diamond

On the second floor we additional exhibits - one interesting one was on epidemics, with a lot of emphasis on viruses and disease transmission like SARS, AIDS, and Ebola.  There were also the actual fossils/skeletons mentioned above, and a very large exhibit on gems and minerals.  In one room, they had the 45 carat Hope Diamond on display.  Bix looked it up and its estimated worth was between 200 and 300 million dollars.

Air Force Memorial -
"Missing Man" formation

After a couple of hours in the museum, we decided to head to the Pentagon to make sure we did not miss our 2pm tour time.  After a short ride, we got there with no one in line and 45 minutes to spare.  We sat in the lobby which also had a gift shop until the called the groups to the small auditorium for orientation.  About 30 of us were in the group which was led by a young Naval enlistedman.  We were not allowed to take pictures along the tour route which mostly stuck to the inner passageway around the 5 acre courtyard (which may contain a Taco Bell).  He described various branches of the armed forces, showed us memorabilia, and described some of the history of the Pentagon.  The tour lasted about 45 minutes in which time we covered a little over one mile of the supposed 17 miles of the building.  We suspect there was more to the building, underground, but who knows?  One of the stops was to the "reflecting room" where there was a tribute to the victims of the Pentagon plane bombing in 911.  It was a solemn moment and another guide relayed information about the day itself and who were affected, on the plan and in the building.  Over 180 people lost their life that day at the Pentagon.  




Union Station lobby

The tour ended somewhat abruptly and we wee back out on the street in front of the main entrance.  The family wanted lunch so I suggested we check out Union Station as a dry run for our 7:15 am trip to Philadelphia on Friday.  We found the food court, which luckily had Taco Bell.  We ate our fill and then I decided we could walk home, which Shellie was doubtful but played along.  Two big blocks, slightly downhill, and we were at our hotel. Come Friday, it will be a little uphill, but still only about a 10 min walk.





We left for the Washington Nationals baseball game is at 6pm and 5 minutes after we got to the stadium it started pouring rain.  They resumed the game after a 2 hour rain delay, so we still got to see the game.  Washington won 2-0.