Summer 2012 - Day 4

I woke up today, but only sprang out of bed when the fire alarm went off. There was no real fire, but the bacon that Friend's Husband was cooking had created a great deal of smoke that set off the alarm. Since I was out of bed, it was time to get ready. Friend's Husband was making pancakes with pecan bits in them, which I happily consumed while listening to and making commentary on NPR. Great conversation took place, Friend emerged from the shower, I went online and chatted with other friends, made a Facebook post, and we were off for the Natural History Museum.

We took the metro to one of the downtown stations - Metro Center, I guess - and began walking towards The Mall. Friend's Husband pointed to a building and asked if it was the FBI building, since he had "recognized it from X-Files", and we think he was right. We remarked on how lots of DC has "familiar-looking buildings" from TV shows (and not the famous buildings, we ruled all of those out), but since the skyline is so unremarkable, it is hard to know where anything that isn't a government building or a monument is in relation to anything else.

We went into the Natural History Museum and headed for the second floor and the Gem and Mineral exhibit.

After seeing the lava exhibit, I came into a room with video of the rescue of those miners in Chile, and I realized that I was looking at the actual tube-thing that they used to rescue them. It was very moving.

We then went into the part of the exhibit about earth rocks, minerals, and various metals, including gold.

Then I saw The Hope Diamond, which was actually less interesting (to me) than most of the other rocks, including one that was exhibited nearby.

The Hope Diamond

A much more interesting rock nearby

Next, we went through other parts of the museum, a section on entomology, ancient Egypt, a bunch of animal skeletons, and analysis of skeletons found of the original colonists of the Chesapeake Bay.

More photos....

The filed teeth indicate that this person was born in Africa.

It was pretty good stuff. I also learned the word "denticles", which is what the photo is below.

Then we left and went to get salads. After walking for what seemed like forever (yet I refrained from complaining, it was very good of me), we got to the salad place and ordered these salads. They were good. We had good conversation over salad. I also checked my iPhone and answered a few questions from work.

The rest of the day was pretty chill, since Friend had to be to work the next day. I arranged some things to be washed the next day, and other things to be shipped home, watched various things with my hosts, created this blog, and chatted with friends.

Day 4 will end here, adios!