Museum Fatigue

Sunday morning, I left Chris at my apartment to do some writing and made plans to meet up in the afternoon on the Mall. I spent the morning in a couple museums, starting with the National Archives. I was still a little tired from our travels the day before, so I went straight for the gold: the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. The documents are really faded in places, but on the declaration, you can definitely see the familiar names, John Hancock (obviously), John Adams (a personal fave), TJ, Benny Franklin, etc. I'm glad I got to take a peep at them and read some of the familiar lines from the actual text. I wouldl like to say I felt reverent as I observed some of the most important political documents in the world, but it's not true. I feel that by now I am a little desensitized because it seems like every part of this city is tinged with the past.

Next, I went to the National Gallery of Art and looked at mostly old (and I mean old) religious paintings. I can only take so much of that before I get bored, but it was also kind of neat because I was reading a historical fiction novel about Greenland set in the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century. The Gallery features many European works of art from this period, so it lent a bit of visual context to the fascinating book I've immersed myself in (Jane Smiley's The Greenlanders if you're curious).

I did find some amusements; my favorite was a ghastly little painting by Bosch of skeleton-creatures peering at a (dead, I assume) man laid out on a bed. I guess I prefer modern art, but there were a lot of lovely portraits, many painted by all those famous Europeans. I can remember Hillary's mom coming to our 5th grade class as an art docent and teaching us about them all so it was cool to see them in real life. I prefer portraits of women because they're prettier, but I also like to play a game with the portraits of men: I imagine seeing the man in real life today and deciding if I would find him attractive.

Art:

There are a lot of sculptures in this museum.

After I burnt out at the museum, I sat out by the fountain in the sculpture garden next door and got a bit of a sunburn waiting for Chris.

Fountain with the National Archives in the background.

There is a ledge in the fountain so you can dangle your feet and cool off, which would be brilliant if you weren't sitting on a slab of granite has been baking in the sun all day and that must be about 120 degrees. It would also be very peaceful except there is a man who blows a very obnoxious whistle whenever anyone tries to wade in the fountain, which happens frequently because tourists are oblivious to signs and rules.

When Chris arrived, we lounged for about an hour more then wandered over to the Museum of Natural History, which I was looking forward to until the minute I stepped in and found it swarming with children and families. I am not sure what I was expecting, but it was crazier than the Air and Space Museum (or at least I was crankier and more tired). I couldn't even enter the dinosuar exhibit, normally my favorite, because of the mob and the chaos, so I parted ways with Chris and went to the deep sea exhibit and somehow spent two hours there learning about sea life. It was less crowded, but not by much.

I learned some neat things: there was a preserved giant squid on display (giant squids always remind me of reading Michael Criton's book Sphere in the 6th grade and how terrified I was): panels taught me how whales evolved first from water to land and then back to water, alligator and crocodile skelentons dangled menacingly from the ceiling, and there were videos of octopus camoflauging themselves and deep sea critters displaying their bioluninescence. I definitely missed all the other exhibits, but hopefully I can go back before I leave this city.

A scary fish fossil that is certain to give a few children (and this blogger) nightmares.

This fish is cool because scientists thought it went extinct with the dinosaurs until someone discovered one off the coast of South Africa in the 90s. Since then, another of the same species was found in Indonesia. COOL!

This is a replica but a very pretty one.

Great white jaws; I waited very patiently to take this photo while a mother took about 80 pictures of her little boy in front of this display. He was hamming it up and the mom wanted him to "give her a nice smile."

So, the greatest part of my day (sorry, art, science, and the talented curators at the Smithsonians) was when I discovered the ice cream stand in the basement of the museum. I don't actually love ice cream, and I rarely keep some in my freezer, but I like to have it as a treat sometimes when I'm out, and I was so exhausted at this point I needed a snack. I almost cried when I discovered the cafeteria was closed, but this tiny little ice cream stand probably saved my life (as well as the lives of some innocent bystanders). I ordered a scoop of peanut butter ice cream with fudge ribbons and chunks of peanut butter cups embedded in the ice cream and as the first bite began to refresh and revive me, I immediately wished I had gotten two scoops. The consumption of such decadence put me into some sort of stupor, and I remained at the table staring at my shoes until Chris phoned and suggested we move on.

In front of the museum, there is a petrified tree on display that is over 200 million years old and comes from the petrified forest in Arizona. I must go there.