Museum Day

Today was our last day in DC, so we took the opportunity to skim the surface of a few of the more prominent Smithsonian museums. More on that in a minute.

For breakfast, I decided to go light. I was actually still full from the wedding feast, so I limited my food consumption today. I had two hard boiled eggs...

...and half of a double chocolate muffin.

Our first stop of the day was at the National Museum of Natural History. We rather quickly perused the Mammals, Human History, and Ocean sections. One of my personal highlights was seeing this sculpture of an early humanoid.

Look at that back musculature! Look how lean this bro was! I mean, look at that vascularity and bicep vein:

I would have gotten along just fine with this bro, the first bro. He was obviously the founder and first leader of the Brohood, and he fostered his bro disciples to proliferate. Eventually, it culminated in me, just The Average Bro.

Afterward, we headed down the street for a lunch break. This was another sandwich and dessert shop.

They also had the same brand of chips that Mrs. E's carries at their deli.

I ended up splitting a Montreal Beef sandwich and salad with Sidney. Remember, I'm going light today.

It was really good. We then split a rather large chocolate chip muffin.

It was also really good.

After lunch, we visited a place that allowed me to check a big ticket item off of my bucket list.

Yes, the National Air and Space Museum. I can't tell you how many times I've read about an airplane only to find out that it was housed in the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum. And now I was actually here. Finally, I was actually standing in the very building where all those planes also reside. It was a pretty special feeling.

After the Air and Space Museum, we walked across the Mall to the Art Museum. I was again able to check another item off my bucket list, although maybe a little smaller of an item. After going from room to room viewing countless 400-500 year old paintings and sculptures, I found an actual da Vinci. It was remarkable in that it was a simple portrait and yet one of the most famous artists, inventors, and humans in all of history had painted it. Something he touched I was able to stand mere feet from. Again, it was a pretty powerful feeling. It's also worth mentioning that although this was a relatively small and simple portrait, it commanded a very prominent placement in the center of a room, an increased amount of security, and was one of the few paintings to actually have a thick layer of glass in front of it. That says something of the significance of Leonardo da Vinci.

We then headed down to the basement of the museum to the gift shop, racing time to get to the gelato stand that closed imminently.

We made with less than a minute to spare. But that was all the time I needed to order a single serving of caramel gelato.

It was good. After this, we headed back to the train station and eventually back to our hotel. Once there, we decided on ordering pizza for dinner. Again, I tried to go light.

I ate only three pieces of pizza. One was sausage and green pepper, one was Canadian bacon and mushroom, and one was spinach Alfredo. I also had three little Parmesan bread stick ball thingies. I think I did fairly well in my quest to eat light today.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the museums. Not to say that museums back home aren't good, there was just something special about these museums. Of course, museums as prestigious as the Smithsonian will garner much more highly noted pieces, and I suppose that's it. I don't expect an art museum in Kansas to feature an actual da Vinci or an Air and Space museum in Kansas to feature the original Wright Flyer.

It would truly take weeks to fully explore all these museums and the many others to a satisfactory extent, so what we did in a day barely scratched the surface. But that surface we scratched was still incredibly awesome.