I didn’t know that the smithsonian was so extensive. Its 19 separate museums and were/are great places to visit.
The first things I wanted to see were the Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the Air and Space museum. ย These were great to visit but I also discovered lots more to see. The Natural History Museum was great, as was the Portrait gallery and the National Museum. The national archives was a little less interesting (probably more aimed at children) but it was interesting to see a 1296 copy of the Magna Carta. There was a line for about 40 mins to see the declaration of independence but no line at all for the magna carta.
The Spy Museum (not smithsonian) and the Crime and Punishment museum were interesting but also mainly directed at children, or at least people who don’t watch documentaries as often as I do.
Madame Tussads was really crappy. It could have been that I was expecting so much more after going to the ‘real’ one in london but this one wasn’t even as good as the wax museum in surfers paradise in Qld.
The postal museum was interesting, although also more for children, and had the postage stamp that we’ve all seen on television with the upside-down plane. I don’t know whats its worth but its always the example of expensive stamps.
The Lincoln monument was interesting (although very wet that day) and the Washington monument was also worth seeing (not that you could avoid it). In the same area the monuments were the WWII and Vietnam memorials, the Korean war memorial is a little further away and I didn’t get that far.
I didn’t get to the American Indian museum, the FBI building or the Capitol Building but they had to be missed as I ran out of time. I did get to go to the new Air and Space museum wing (the new one as the 1976 one was full) at Dulles Airport. Thats were the space shuttle enterprise is and the SR-71 Blackbird as well as lots of other things.
So, the things I saw that I will hopefully remember are…
Apollo 11 command module
Space Shuttle Enterprise (not that it was a finished space shuttle capable of space flight)
Magna Carta
The upside down stamp
SR-71
the Original ‘Wright Flyer’
Original Space Suits (from many of the moon trips)0
The X-1
The Enola Gay
Overall it was a great trip to washington as I managed to have it over a weekend where I didn’t have to do too much work and got to see some great stuff.
