Washington Day 4: Life and Death

I actually made it to the Museum of Natural History today. I left the house way to early this morning so I stopped at a cafe, Bliss Cafe, for a chai tea and a muffin. It was really yummy! It was on 2nd Street and Massachusetts Avenue. I would recommend it! I got to the museum and wandered around for almost three hours.

I found a artifact that mentioned Canada again!

It's a penguin! My favorite!

This bison was naturally mummified. I wasn't sure if I should be awed or grossed out.

I seem natural in the face of danger! No fear for me!

I was going to make a bad joke about how old people like my uncle should avoid this area, but I thought that would be in bad taste!

I finally left because I couldn't stand looking at another dead stuffed thing or just a thing that's dead from any era! Therefore I headed to a place where animals live, the Smithsonian National Zoo! Another reason why I left was because the museum was getting really crowded and I kept wanting to smack the children who were touching the objects! I was at the zoo for two and a half hours. It was in the hottest part of the day, so most of the animals were inside and some of the out of view. I did get to see the pandas and giant squid, so I was a happy camper!

I decided that I'm an emu whisperer. When I first came up to this emu it was looking away, but I was able to make it look at me by saying "emu." I know! You're all jealous of my talent!

An alpaca for my mom!

GIANT SQUID!

I have to admit that this zoo is better then the Calgary one. The Smithsonian zoo is smaller and has less animals, but the animals spaces are much bigger inside and out. When my family comes down I want someone to take me there so that they can buy me a souvenir! I have a lot more animal photos, but they would take up to much room! One neat thing about the zoo is that they had the zebra and the cheetah enclosures right next to each other. When I was there the cheetah went up to the fence and closely watched the zebra that was just on the other side before stretching and heading off. I got the idea that the cheetah had tried to go for the zebras before but suffered consequences and learned from that.

That's all for today! Write to you tomorrow!

Captain's log: Washington Day 2 and 3

I realized that I forgot to mention that yesterday I wandered into the Smithsonian's Sculpture Garden Tuesday. Wandering though there reinforced my notion that I have no understanding of art what-so-ever. Some of the art had a Greek and Roman influence. Most of it was abstract and I had no idea what was going on. There seemed to be a lot of twisted people.

Yesterday I went to the Air and Space museum. I was there for 5 and a half hours. I didn't get to see all of it because there were a lot of school groups and kids who would just stand in front of the artifacts or write ups. However, it was really interesting and I would certainly go back.

When I saw this plane my first thought was "Wow! I didn't know my uncle's car could turn into an airplane!" They are exactly the same colour!

I also learned at the Space Museum that curators have a good sense of humor!

I also found all the things that referenced Canada in the museum! 

After I walked to the Eastern Market which is an indoor market open six days a week. They had some really nice fresh produce there. So I stalked up on apples, broccoli, asparagus, green beans, bread and cheese for the week. It was a little more expensive then it would be at some places, but it is nearby and not nearly as expensive as the grocery store down the street that overprices everything!

Today I started out my day by venturing towards an Aldi's, a lower price grocery store. I bought yogurt, salad dressing, ziplock bags and some lemonade. It was much cheaper, but in a sketchier part of town, so I don't know if I'll go back there. 

After I ate lunch I decided to go to the Natural History Museum. However, I went into the wrong building and ended up in the National Gallery of Art. It was nice in there. There wasn't to many people and in the building I was in it was art I could understand. I only went through the western building that houses the older art. The eastern building has the more modern art. My camera died after two hours in the art gallery. I was in there for about two and a half hours. I've been walking so much the last couple of days that my shins hurt! In the gallery there was a Leonardo Da Vinci painting, but I was it after my camera died, so there's no proof. There were also Vincent Van Gogh painting and Claude Monet along with many others.

The paintings mostly originated from France, Italy, the Netherlands, America and England. I would go back. I would probably not take as long, but I still would like to talk to someone about the paintings. I would also like to visit the East building even though it is a different style of art, more modern. I liked looking at how every country had a similar style when it came to portraits, but there were subtle differences in the background, how the people were posed and the colours used.