The Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian

We walked across the mall and got to the main entrance and had to stand in line of about 30 people. We went through security and then duct in quickly into the mammals  Xzibit.  They had a special exhibit on narwhals and had the skull of a 2 tusked narwhal which is very very rare.  There was a wide range of  mammals skeletons and taxidermy . We then made a beeline for the minerals which is up on the second floor.  Cooper had been studying minerals and so that was a great place to start. The exhibit begins with meteorites of various forms and then moves on to volcanism and how minerals are created. Then it went on to how they are mind and where they're found and finished up with a dazzling array of examples. 

The welcome elephant

We must get an app so that we can make wise decisions as for our directions

Ready to set off into the museum

In the mammals of course they were lions tigers and bears

A very detailed sculpture from the Inuit people

A narwhal Up on the ceiling

The two tusked narwhal skull

Finally I find some Jade

And a very fine Green Jade it is

Granite with circularly shaped inclusions

Gneiss with a oddly shaped inclusion

A  faulted piece of granite

A very elaborately shaped Crystal

This is a type of iron

This gold nugget weighs over 6 lb

Gold found within a large pyrite matrix Crystal

An incredibly bright opal

All the minerals are arranged in the Hues of the rainbow

This loggerhead could have had Cooper for a snack