Hey Laura, it's your birthday, it's your birthday...65 trips around the sun. We woke up early and with some help the XYZ gang blew up balloons and set up a table of birthday goodies for Laura. We cooked breakfast and headed out by 10AM. We got to the Metro station and purchased seven day passes for everybody. This will give us unlimited rides on metro trains and metro busses. The train ride was fun and when we emerged from the train station a lovely woman gave us rapid fire and unexpected directions for all points of interest. We took off to Laura's pick for the morning, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. We started in the Hall of Gems and Minerals, continued through the mammals and on to the Origins of Humans. Then we had a snack break at the cafeteria before heading out to the Lincoln Memorial
Preparation for the birthday greeting
Sash, balloons and a tiara
The birthday girl has emerged from her shower!
Tiara time!
Big thanks to the kids for the fancy birthday items
One gift was to let Laura comb their hair
Walking in our neighborhood we see traditional houses
and some very modern places too
Getting help choosing out tickets for the Metro
The escalator down is very steep
Everyone is hanging on
Let the train riding begin
The station is huge
and the seats are big enough for three
Off they go!
We were greeted by a lovely woman who gave us a days worth of directions
Moai from Easter Island
Stone faced!
I hope to someday have a diamond this size, the Hope Diamond
In the hall of gems and minerals
A huge calcite crystal from Arkansas
Looks like a failed bakeing experiment
Some minerals glow in the UV light
Some are magnetic and so is this display!
Some are radioactive!
A streaked Tenrec from Madagascar
A change to tell some stories from our latest trip to Africa where we saw this exact scenario
X as an Australopithecus
Z as a Homo Erectus
Y as a Homo Heidelbergensis
And my mustache has survived the transformation
A row of deep thinkers
Off to the ocean exhibit
Clown fishing around
What do we have here, a can of Whiskey?
Rehydration break
Oh what a tiny little can, a dram of a can
Megalodon!
Watch out!
How big a bite that the megalodon could take
What a dome!
African Elephant!
Chomp chomp chomp
