#3 - Visit the Smithsonian

Yes, I have now visited the Smithsonian.  Or a couple Smithsonians actually, there are after all a whole herd of Smithsonian museums in Washington D.C. and its environs.

My first visit was to the National Air and Space Museum, Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport, new home of the Space Shuttle Discovery. 

Also home of the Enola Gay, Gossamer Albatross, Concord, GlobalFlyer, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules and even a couple Goodyear blimp gondolas.  Very cool!  Pictures to be viewed here.

Next day we spent a bit of time at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History on the National Mall.  Too much to see and too many groups of school children, but we managed to see bits of dinosaur fossils, ancient seas, human history, the Hope Diamond, gems and minerals and the Chilean miner escape pod.  We even had a beer in the museum's cafe.