While the monuments and three branches of Government were all impressive, one of the funnest and most interesting things to do was just walk the streets of Washington DC. Almost every building is “something” such as a dept of agriculture, FBI building, Library of Congress, Hubert Humphrey building, FEMA, etc. Mary even found a Marshall store (which is one of her favorites) in one of these buildings. We tried to keep these pics in order as we saw them, so we started with a picture of where our adventure began, in the park, and our day ended with James taking a much needed dip in the pool.

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With rain in the afternoon on Saturday we spent the time exploring a couple of the Smithsonian museums. The Natural History Museum was very crowded and we had to wait in a 20 minute line to get in (they do security scans in all the museums). Dad visited the Smithsonian decades ago and wanted to see the dinosaurs, but that part of the museum was being renovated and he never got to see it, so this visit we made it up to Dad. The museum also hosted the Hope Diamond which was stored in the gem area of the museum. Awesome displays of animals and man were on display over several floors and they even had a butterfly exhibit with live butterflies, but we did not visit it since we see this on our Macinac visits and it had a long line. The ocean exhibit was fantastic with everything from whales to skeletons of whales which were hanging down from the ceiling. The mammal exhibit was like going to a zoo and we were thinking that probably is where many of the animals came from after they passed on. The dinosaur exhibit had a T Rex and Triceratop skeletons on display along with many smaller dinosaurs. You could also peer into the lab and watch the people work on fossils which was reminded us of a scene in Jurassic park. All in all it was very much worth the wait.

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Right behind the Capitol is the Supreme Court. The Capitol pretty much hides the Supreme court from the park or monument strip so it would be very easy to be missed. We put special interest on this building for James because at the current time the Senate is in the process of approving a ninth judge. Justice Kennedy retired earlier in the year and the current nominee is Brett Kavanaugh and the interview process is getting ready to begin. We told James he would probably be seeing a lot more of the Supreme Court in the near future because of these developments so he will be monitoring the hearings on TV to see what happens.

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While walking down the streets of washington DC we came across this beautiful building and we could not resist taking pictures since we heard so much about it during the 2016 election (it opened the same year after being renovated). This is the old post office building and is just gorgeous with the clock tower and fairy tale castle looks. Its 315-foot (96 m) high Clock Tower houses the “Bells of Congress” and is the third tallest building in Washington at the time of this visit.

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The forecast called for rain Saturday afternoon so we planned on visiting the Smithsonian during this time frame. The first museum was the American History Museum which had a variety of artifacts including the First Lady exhibit, Julia Childs exhibit, and even Archie Bunkers chair. Without a doubt the highlight was the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to compose the National Anthem. It was in a special area and photography was not allowed to help preserve it so the only pictures we got are from the outside of the exhibit. So much to see and so little time while visiting the Smithsonian.

Check out the slide show below

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