National Museum of Natural History

Some of the museums on the National Mall are gigantic! I went to the National Museum of Natural History and learned about a lot of things.

First, we visited the Hall of Human Origins. I learned about early homids (that means early ancestors of human beings who lived thousands to millions of years ago).

Homo heidelbergensis lived about 300,000 to 600,00 years ago

Paranthropus boisei lived about 1.2 to 2.3 million years ago. Can you tell what kind of vegetable he's pulling out of the ground? It looks like a beet to me.

Next, we visited Ocean Hall. Have you ever been to the ocean? Oceans are much, much bigger than the Great Lakes, and also much, much saltier.

Giant squid

Phoenix the Right Whale, based on a real whale that lives in North Atlantic Ocean

Coral reef

For the final stop in Ocean Hall, I visited the fossil collection.

We're inside the jaw of Carcharadon megalodon, a giant great white shark

Did you know that Michigan used to be covered by an ancient ocean?

This sign says that the display case has a sample of Prismatophyllum - a type of coral - from Michigan.

My hand is pointing to the Prismatophyllum

Do you know of any other fossilized corals found in Michigan? Here's a picture of one. Isn't it beautiful?

Michigan's state stone, the Petoskey stone. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Speaking of beautiful rocks, I made one last stop inside of the National Museum of Natural History...the Hope Diamond.

The National Museum of Natural History had many more exhibits, but I wasn't able to visit all of them. If you come to Washington, DC for a visit, make sure you plan for a lot of time at this museum!

National Archives

Have you seen the movie National Treasure? In the movie, one of the characters steals the Declaration of Independence from the National Archives.

In real life, it would be very hard to steal that national treasure, because the National Archives keeps the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights tightly locked up. In fact, they are so protective of these Charters of Freedom that I wasn't able to take any photos of them when I visited the National Archives! Luckily, the National Archives has photos on their website, so you can still see what these documents look like.

      

I was able to take some photos outside of the National Archives. Here I am with the sculpture Heritage.

And here I am in front of the National Archives building.

National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden

According to Stacy and Emily, the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden is one of the best places take a break if you get tired while walking around the National Mall and visiting museums. (And boy, did I get tired! Did you know that the National Mall is two miles long? It stretches all the way from the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial.)

Here are the sculptures that I visited:

Six-Part Seating (this is the only one you are allowed to touch)

Scott Burton

House I

Roy Lichtenstein

This one is really neat. As you walk past it, the house seems to change the direction it is facing. Here is a video that shows it.

Cheval Rouge (Red Horse)

Alexander Calder

This is Stacy's favorite sculpture. She also really likes the mobiles that Alexander Calder made, like this one that is on display inside the National Gallery.

Spider

Louise Bourgeois

Graft

Roxy Paine

This is Emily's favorite sculpture. She is a botanist (someone who studies plants), so it makes sense that her favorite sculpture is one of a tree.

Typewriter Eraser, Scale X

Claes Oldenburg

Cherry blossoms

Washington, DC is famous for its cherry blossoms. Over 100 years ago, in 1912, the country of Japan donated over 3,000 cherry trees to the United States. These trees were planted around the Tidal Basin, in East Potomac Park, and at the White House.

Cherry blossoms in 2012

In 1935, the first Cherry Blossom Festival was held. Today, the festival is about three weeks long and features dance and music performances, a parade, and even fireworks.

During the Cherry Blossom Festival, people come from all over the country - and all over the world - to see Washington, DC's famous cherry blossoms.

Crowds at the Jefferson Memorial during the 100th anniversary of the cherry blossoms in 2012

Each year, the National Park Service predicts when the cherry blossoms will be at "peak bloom". That means the days that most of the cherry trees will have a lot of flowers. Usually the trees bloom in late March or early April. This year, the National Park Service thinks that the peak bloom will be around April 11-14.

Even though I was in Washington, DC too early to see the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin, I did get to see some other cherry blossoms around town. Here is a picture of me in a cherry tree outside of the U.S. Botanic Garden.

Keep watching my blog - today or tomorrow I will post more pictures from my trip to the U.S. Botanic Garden and to some other fun places in DC.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Public Library

This afternoon we visited the main library in Washington, DC. It is named after Martin Luther King, Jr.

Photo courtesy of Library of Congress

I spent most of my time in the children's section of the library. They have so many books here!

I even found some books about ME!

The children's section also has a really nice play area. I played with the dress up clothes.

When I got tired of that, I looked at more books.

National Building Museum

Today I visited the National Building Museum. The museum is all about buildings, architecture, and designing cities.

My favorite part of the museum was the giant courtyard on the first floor - there was so much room to run around and play! In the courtyard are giant columns that go from the floor all the way up to the ceiling - they are 75 feet tall. Here is a picture of me standing at the bottom of one.

Right now, there is an exhibit called "Hot to Cold" that is all about buildings in different parts of the world. There are lots of little models of different buildings hanging up around the Great Hall in the museum. The exhibit also uses LEGOs to show different building designs. I wish I was that good at building things out of LEGOs!

Washington National Cathedral

Earlier this week I visited the Washington National Cathedral.

Photo courtesy of Library of Congress

The Cathedral has a very long history, going back to the very beginning of Washington, DC. In 1791, President George Washington hired Pierre L'Enfant to plan the city that would become Washington, DC. L'Enfant imagined that the city would include space for something like the National Cathedral.

But it took over 100 years before anyone started to build the cathedral. In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt spoke at a ceremony where workers laid the first stone.

Builders continued working on the cathedral for 83 years before it was finally finished in 1990. That's 199 years after Pierre L'Enfant first had the idea!

Emily's friend Betsy lives across the street from the National Cathedral. I could get a really good view of the Cathedral from her apartment window.

Betsy let me use her telescope to look at some of the grotesques and gargoyles on the Cathedral up close. There are over 100 of them around the Cathedral! Here is one of the most famous ones: Darth Vader!

Photo courtesy of the National Cathedral

The National Cathedral has a webpage about their grostesques and gargoyles - or you can see all of them up close at this website.

Top of the Hay

Last night I got to visit a really neat place - the Top of the Hay, at the Hay-Adams Hotel. The walkway around the top of the hotel has an amazing view of the White House and all the way down to the Potomac River.

In this picture, the White House is in the middle, the Washington Monument is directly behind the White House, and the Jefferson Memorial is just above the right top corner of the White House.

Here's another photo of me at the Top of the Hay. To my left is the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. It's pretty neat that I got to go inside of that building earlier in the day!

Finally, here is a picture of me giving a speech at the Top of the Hay.

Okay, so maybe I didn't actually give a speech. But I did get to stand at the same podium where University of Michigan president Mark Schlissel had made a speech earlier in the evening. Both Emily and Stacy went to the University of Michigan, so they were excited to see the new president of the school. Go Blue!

Visiting the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building

Emily's office is near the White House. Do you know who lives in the White House?

Here's a hint:

Photo courtesy of the White House

It's the Obama family! Barack Obama is the President of the United States. His wife is Michelle Obama and his daughters are Malia and Sasha Obama. The Obama family also has two dogs: Bo and Sunny.

Photo courtesy of the White House

I got to Washington, DC a day too late to go to the White House Science Fair, but I did see some really cool videos of science projects that kids and adults are working on. One of my favorites is a robot page turner invented by a team of first graders from Oklahoma.

Photo courtesy of @WhiteHouse on Twitter

My other favorite science project was 3D printed legs for Derby the dog. Here is video from the White House showing Derby.

Even though I didn't get to go inside the White House during my trip, I did have a good view of it from the roof of Emily's office building. I also got to visit the building next door to the White House - the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (also known as the EEOB). Because there isn't a lot of space in the White House for offices, many people who work for the President and Vice-President actually work in EEOB,

Emily's co-worker showed me his favorite spot in the EEOB - a model of the gunboat USS Nashville. The USS Nashville served in both the Spanish-American War and World War I.

I finished up my day back at Emily's office, where I learned about what she does at work. Emily helps students, teachers, and members of the general public learn about science. Here is a picture of me with some of the reports and teaching tools that Emily and her co-workers have worked on.

The reports are the National Climate Assessment (additional teaching tools), the Climate Literacy guide, and the Energy Literacy guide.

Riding public transportation

Many people who live in the Washington, DC area use public transportation to go to school or work. Instead of driving a car, they walk to the nearest bus stop or Metro (subway) station and take a bus or train.

Yesterday, I got to ride on BOTH kinds of public transit! My first trip was on the subway.

I got on at the Federal Center Southwest station. I'm pointing to the station on the map above. You need a SmarTrip card in order to ride the trains and buses here - I'm holding my SmarTrip card in my other hand.

Here I am on the train platform, waiting for my train to come.

When I got on the train, it was rush hour. That's when a lot of people are going to or from work. Sometimes the train is so crowded that there aren't any seats available, so people have to stand and hold onto bars along the ceiling and in the middle of the car. Luckily, I was able to find a seat!

Later in the day, I took the bus. Here's a map of the bus routes that go past the bus stop where I waited.

Did you know that the bus doesn't always stop at every bus stop? The driver will pull over to a stop if they see someone waiting at the bus stop. On the bus, there is a sign and a recorded voice that tell you what the next stop will be. If you want to get off, you pull a yellow cord to let the driver know.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Photo courtesy of NASA

Did you know that there are astronauts who work near where Emily and Stacy live? The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, is in charge of space exploration.

Yesterday, March 23, was the 50th anniversary of the launch of NASA's Gemini III mission. The Gemini program is the program that helped NASA get ready to send astronauts to the moon! On the right, I've put a picture of Gemini III astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young.

Emily and Stacy took me to visit NASA this morning on their way to work. First, I visited the NASA store.

I looked for an astronaut suit, but they didn't have any that fit me. Oh well!

Next, I looked at the model of a satellite. Satellites are machines that NASA shoots up to space (on rockets!). Once they are in space, they orbit around the Earth and take pictures that they send back to the scientists at NASA. If you want to see where all of the satellites are around the Earth, you can visit NASA's iSAT interactive satellite viewer.

The satellite that I saw a model of is called SMAP. SMAP stands for "Soil Moisture Active Passive". It will help scientists learn more about how much water is stored in the Earth's soil and will help farmers, weather forecasters, and emergency workers do their jobs better.