The Events of Saturday, December 4, 2010

          Our morning routine gets smoother every day. I awakened the crew at 7:00. Some took showers, others made beds, put away dry dishes, and set out breakfast. We ate at 8:00, had our family devotions and prayer time, and we were out the door by 8:50. Nick, our shuttle driver, met us at the campground office and drove us to the Metro station, which was eerily quiet on this Saturday morning. We took the subway downtown and walked to “Smithsonian Castle”, the visitor center for all the Smithsonian museums. Our docent John took us on a 30-minute Castle Highlights Tour. We were underwhelmed. But we finished in a large room at the end of the west wing that featured displays from all of the Smithsonian Museums. Like a non-verbal menu, if you saw something that interested you, you could find out easily which museum would have more of the same. Clever.

          The main destination today was the Natural History Museum. I suppose everyone has experienced museum overload at some point: too much standing and reading can lead to a zombie state of half-consciousness. So we have developed a strategy for visiting museums: moderation and variety. Set a quick pace, pause to investigate areas of special interest, and then move on to the next area. Using this approach, we visited most of the exhibits in the museum and discovered a few that we truly enjoyed. Mammal Hall featured some dramatic wild animal scenes, often predator capturing prey.

          Our other favorite gallery was called “Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th Century Chesapeake.” Anthropologists have excavated several human graves from the land near the original Jamestown settlement in the last twenty years. Bone experts have analyzed these skeletal remains. They have discovered new information about the Jamestown colonists and their experiences there. In that exhibit area we also enjoyed a “Forensic Anthropology Lab” where museum docents inductively taught us to analyze genuine artifacts and samples of human bone. I think it was intended for kids, but we parents enjoyed it immensely.

          Though this museum took up most of our day, we still had about 45 minutes before we needed to depart for our subway. So we took a speedy self-guided tour of the Freer Gallery of Art. Ancient Asian art is not an area of special interest for us, but we do want to explore and understand great art. Each of us discovered and enjoyed different aspects of the museum: silk screen painting of Japanese dog hunts, the sculpted story of Buddha’s supernatural birth, Japanese Samurai statues, and the “peacock room” decorated in gold-leaf.

          Though temperatures never topped 44° today, we were never outside for more than a few minutes. So, as the sun set, we dashed into the subway station. Our train came on time and our campground shuttle delivered us to our site by 6:00. Pam put together a yummy taco dinner, and we had time after to watch a DVD. We decided on the movie “Hairspray” because it takes place in 1962 in nearby Baltimore. Fun dancing, great music, and a timeless message make this one of our favorites.