Today was the first day of school for most children in our neck of the woods. But we’ve already gotten a week under our belt. So we took advantage of the calm and had a field trip. It was a perfect day for a visit to the Smithsonian. We went to the Museum of Natural History to see the exhibit celebrating the Bicentennial of the Lewis & Clark expedition out west before it closes next Monday. Of course, field trips are always more fun with friends, so we took my friend SizzlingEwe and her children, the 3BlazingLambs, and our ever present companion, +OneFriend.
The very best day of any day in the year to visit the Smithsonian is the day after Labor Day. We had the museum virtually to ourselves. There were other visitors to be sure. But parking was freely had (not free, but easily gotten), exhibits were easily seen, there were no lines for anything. We had a ball. The Lewis and Clark exhibit was enlightening. I learned quite a bit about Thomas Jefferson as well as gaining insight into the early years of our country.
After lunch the children asked to see the dinosaur exhibit. We had to pull them away from the Mammal exhibit by telling them they had to choose because time was running out. They chose the Dinosaurs. Their joy and anticipation was palpable as we all danced into the exhibit hall. They were immediately drawn to the large beasts and we imagined making one leg bone into a bed for a BlazingLamb. She declared it too uncomfortable, so we moved on. We imagined running into a sauropod in real life and had delicious shivers of fear. Then we got to the king of the beasts … tyrannosaurus rex. Ohhh, he had huge teeth. Enormous teeth. We were glad he doesn’t roam the world today. But then one of the smallest BlazingLambs asked, “What’s that bone?” and pointed to a large bone that looked somewhat like a chicken’s breast bone hanging down between the tyrannosaur’s legs. LightBoy, passing by, said, “Oh … that’s the weiner bone.” And off they all went to the next dinosaur, leaving SizzlingEwe and I gasping for breath as we tried not to laugh out loud. Hmmmm, I guess dinosaur anatomy might figure prominently in our science curriculum this year.
