Snow Day and the Museums

Friday, Asher went to school so my mom and I took the girls to the Museum of Natural History.

It was snowing and we were a little nervous about getting caught in a blizzard (ha - silly Californians are we...) so, we bundled up...




...and Kay was gracious to drop us off in front of the museum.

Fortunately for us, it was the wrong museum! I say fortunately because had we not mistakenly gone into the Museum of American History, we would have missed out on seeing the original flag that hung above the War of 1816 that inspired Francis Key Scott to write the Star Spangled Banner...AND we would have missed seeing the beautiful First Lady's Inaugural Gown exhibit!



We oooohed and ahhhhed over all the gowns from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama! We saw their accessories - old fans and jewelry from the 1800's and tea sets used in entertaining. We even listened to some of the presentation speeches from the ladies themselves as they donated their gowns to the Smithsonian.

I have new appreciation for Hillary Clinton's gown, which in pictures looks dowdy and unflattering, but in person is gorgeously beaded and a perfect shade of deep purple. I see why she choose it. And Michelle Obama's dress that had mixed reviews was actually also beautiful in person, along with her Jimmy Choo shoes and sparkling diamond bracelets! R&R got to choose which dresses they liked best and were sure to tell me which ones they would NEVER wear! hahaha (ps - I have NO pictures from the American Hist. museum because they don't allow pix in there and I got yelled at about my camera...oops ;-)

We did finally make it to the Museum of Natural History...



... and we had a really good time checking out the exhibits with the animals...the DINOSAURS (especially Rexy - the T-Rex from Night at the Museum - one of the girls' favorite movies).



We also saw an IMAX movie about Dinos, which was fun.




And then we got some lunch!



We wanted to leave before it started to get dark since we were taking the Metro home. And we were awestruck leaving the museum and walking toward the train. It was so beautiful walking down on the Mall. We saw the Capitol building, the Smithsonian castle, and the Washington Monument...and the girls loved walking through the snow!






Washington, D.C. is lovely and I see why my brother loved it so.