DC in a day

The hardest part of touring DC in a day is deciding on what you don't want to see. After doing some research and realizing that it would cost us $100 to all ride into town on the Metro and talking with a friend that's familiar with driving into DC, we decided to take the plunge and drive right in. With great luck, we landed parking places in the best spots for all our stops. We started our day at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum.

We were all pretty excited about the awesome parking spot we got and maybe just a little excited to be in DC!

Even though we narrowed down the Smithosonian options to the Natural History museum, we still had to choose which exhibits we wanted to visit.  We chose the Ancient Egyptian Mummies and the Gem and Mineral exhibit.  After learning so much about Ancient Egypt it was truly awesome to see the actual artifacts in person!  I must say, I didn't realize how many animals they mummified!

Philip happened to hear on NPR that we would be in DC on the same day as the unveiling of the world's largest Aquamarine gemstone.  It's 14 inches tall and amazing.  We headed over to see the unveiling live and then meandered through the gems and mineral exhibit.  I could have stayed here for hours.  The Hope Diamond wasn't the only beautiful diamond they had in this exhibit.

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Since we drove into DC, we were able to picnic on the grounds of the Smithsonian!  There's nothing like a PBJ sandwich.