Museum of Natural History

It's my niece's birthday next week and she is obsessed with dinosaurs. So I toddled off to the Museum of Natural History to find her something with a dinosaur on it. I wasn't disappointed.

This is a really cool place and I am looking forward to going back during the off-season when it's not crammed full of tourists.

The outside of the Museum

When you walk in, there is a big ol' African elephant in the rotunda.

Since I was looking for dinosaurs...

They have a 3D printer re-creating dinosaur bones.

They had a lot of animals on display...almost felt like I was back at BYU going to the Bean Museum...they did not have a liger though...or a cougar. 

Honey-badger don't care...

A beaver!

A beaver skull that you could touch. It's teeth were about the length of half my finger.

MOOSEN!

A porcupine for Matt.

I did not appreciate their tribute to bears though...

Black bears...

Polar bears...

and grizzlies...oh my.

They also have an ocean room.

You ever have the feeling that something is behind you?

He is my squishy...

They had a really cool geology display and I enjoyed walking around and feeling the different rocks.

A map that shows all the earthquakes that are happening in the US on a daily basis.

A fault line.

The answer: yes.

A view from the window 

The Hope Diamond...not a great picture.

Natural formation from sandstone.

Penguin skeleton.

Mummies!

A Triceratops. They have a new dinosaur exhibit opening in November that I want to go see.

They have an interactive dinosaur screen. You stand against the wall and watch the dinosaurs come across the screen. I was in the picture until the t-rex came in and cut me off. 

Not the proposal I wanted...

A view of the dome.

It was a really interesting museum and I was able to find a cool card to send to my niece in the gift shop. I am looking forward to spending more time there. 

Library of Congress

I was in Heaven today.
Okay, not really but I love the Library of Congress. It was one of my favorite places from when I came ten years ago and I went back today. It was even better than I remembered it.

A friend from school met me at the Library's entrance and much to our delight, the Children's Room was having a Harry Potter celebration since July 31st is his birthday. So that's where we went first.

They had bookmarks, posters, stickers, and guides they were giving away...and yes we both took a poster.

Harry Potter books in different languages. The one at the top is in braille.

What the hallways looked like on the ground floor.

Much to my delight, the Library had an exhibit called "Hope for America" and featured Bob Hope! I practically ran into the exhibit and was so excited to see everything they had. 

Stephen Colbert welcomed you with a quick presentation about what Bob Hope did for America. 

Bob Hope's Presidential Medal of Freedom.

His golf club.

Then next door low and behold:

George Gershwin's Piano! I wished my Grandmas were here to see it.

A party that the Gershwin's attended, dressed as the Marx Brothers.

Then when went up to the first floor and saw lots of amazing things.

The Giant Bible of Mainz

I love the designs and architecture of this building. It is incredible! The ceilings are painted and tiled to represent great moments in education and philosophy and the names of famous philosophers and educators are on the ceiling as well. 

An interesting exhibit about the artwork in the building. Some of it was painted directly onto the surface, and other pieces were painted on canvas and sent to the building to be mounted on the walls. 

A set of stairs that lead to the basement.

Minerva, the goddess of Knowledge.

They had some amazing maps of early America on display. It was fascinating to see how the land was divided and represented.

I decided that I would have no patience to be a map-maker.

The Gutenberg Bible

The Ceiling.

All these books belonged to Thomas Jefferson. He donated them to the LoC to assist in building up their collection. They had the cases arranged in a circle and you could walk around and look at all the titles.

 Another exhibit featured Persian books. The artwork and detail put into these was beautiful.

This book is the call to prayer.

Looking down from the second floor.

Inside the reading room observation deck. 

A water sprinkler...when we came ten years ago, our tour guide told us that all the flowers in the reading room have water sprinklers in them. We didn't believe her and it became a running joke for us.

I loved spending time at the Library of Congress and I am planning on getting a card for the reading room (since I am a resident now. Ha!) and will be sure to post pictures when that happens.