Pics from the Smithsonian

As I said yesterday, we're down in DC with the kids.  Well, yesterday we took them to the American History Museum and the Natural History Museum, both of which I think they really enjoyed.  Certainly I enjoyed myself.  Here are some pictures to prove it.

A statue of George Washington, re-imagined as a Greek god.

Hannah and an early DC generator.  I loved all this stuff from
Thomas Edison's  workshop and the shops of his early competitors.

Hannah and Emma and a giant telescope.

I was looking for something for my wife at the gift
shop, and this caught my eye.

Hannah the predator.  Behind her is a sabertooth tiger skeleton.

Hannah and Sally and the barbarian exhibit.  You can't really
tell from this picture, but that barbarian girl is French;
one of her breasts is exposed.

Man-eating bird!

Where else but the Smithsonian will you see a whale
hanging from the ceiling?  Well, to be fair, they also have one
hanging from the ceiling of the Museum of Natural History
in New York City as well.

Dire wolf skeletons.  I looked but couldn't find the crest for House Stark.

These elephants were in the Presidents' section.
They belonged to Ronald Reagan.

Hannah and Emma pose with a triceretops.

The one thing I thought I kept coming back to today as we walked through the Natural History Museum was that the entire place is designed to show the effects of evolution and the origin and development of the various species of life on Earth.  I say that because Washington, DC, is such an inherently political place, and so I'm a little surprised that folks haven't gone crazy about the fact that our national natural history museum teaches evolution.  But they do, and they do a good job with it.  

Hooray for science!