Day 3

The Smithsonian Zoo is free and had so many cool animals!  This was probably the kid's favorite day.  We got there and found a spot to park on the road and it was even free!  Magic like that doesn't always happen in D.C.

I think we all liked the giant pandas the best.

It was so fun to watch them eat big huge bamboo stalks.  We could hear the crunch as he easily snapped through.  We laughed as one panda slowly lumbered around, but then climbed a tree so fast we could hardly believe it.

All the kids, especially Jason, were in Kung Fu heaven.

Jason kept asking for me to take pictures of his moves.

Allie loved the elephants.  The workers were feeding them too.  They tried to get them to move from one place to another by tossing celery stalks just out of reach.  The elephant would pick it up with a little finger like thing on her trunk and eat it as she walked to the next piece.  

It was fun to be so near them and to see how huge they are!

We loved the small mammal exhibit.

This little guy was one of my favorites.

The tiger was intimidating.  He'd run up to get as close to us as he could and stare at us with a look in his eye that said he'd eat us if he could.  I can't even imagine the fear of being out in the wild with one. 

 The hill on the way out of the zoo was long and seemingly impossible for our friend Jason.  Allie was a wonderful sister and offered to give him a ride.  It made his day.

Next thing you know, Nate asked Jake for a ride and the race was on...

The olders sure can be good to the littles sometimes.

On our way back into the Mall area, we saw a huge cathedral.  It juts out from the trees and is imposing and beautiful.  We wound our way through neighborhoods to see if we could get closer.  It wasn't free to visitors (and when  you have 6 people in your family, that kind of thing is something to consider), so Mike sat in the car with the littles and Allie, Jake and I walked around.

 It was beautiful, and reminded me of some of the Gothic cathedrals in Eastern Europe.

It is called the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington.  It is the second largest church building in the US.  I couldn't fit the whole thing in the frame of my camera.  I'd have had to take pictures from a hill or something. 

We still had some time to kill and the kids were all refreshed, so we decided to brave the National Gallery of Art.  I hadn't ever been in there, so I didn't know what to expect.  As we were going through security, I asked the security guard what we should see if we only have a few minutes.  He told us to see the Leonardo da Vinci.  He told us it was worth 800 million dollars.  Suddenly, both Mike and I realized we were in a beautiful museum with priceless works of art and we had both Jason and Nate with us.  It was seriously almost instantaneous.  We both grabbed onto a kid and started talking about how we need to be good and quiet and not touch anything.  Both littles had a cold and there were coughs, sneezes, and snot everywhere.  They are wild and insane and there are precarious statues on plinths, and it's all just a disaster waiting to happen.  There weren't any other kids in the museum.  There were only seriously dressed and studiously faced men and women looking at us like we were a circus act in a museum of priceless artifacts...which we were. 

Anyway, we wandered around looking at the religious art and statues of naked men.  Allie and Jake were getting increasingly uncomfortable as we saw painting after painting of nude men and women.  It was obvious that they had never been in an art gallery before.  Allie kept asking why it was okay to be looking at porn.  Oh man...
   

We finally found Leonardo da Vinci's  Ginervra de' Benci.  It's the only painting by Leonardo on public view in America.  It's smaller than I would have expected, and to Mike's dismay, it is shockingly unguarded for a priceless painting.  If there is glass over it, we couldn't see any.  So, he was paranoid that one of the boys would sneeze on it.  :)
We looked quickly and made our way out of the gallery.  On our way out, I saw a man looking at a pamphlet of the gallery, and on the back, was Imitator of Vincent van Gogh.  I stopped in my tracks and made my way to the front desk to find out where I could look at that painting.  I love van Gogh. 
There were some complaints, but the kids followed me (past more naked beauties) to the Impressionist wing.  I am so glad we went there.  We saw van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Cezanne, Degas, and many more that were just beautiful.

Whenever I let go of a boy's hand in order to take a picture, the full responsibility fell on Mike...we seriously didn't let go of them for more than a few seconds to take pictures. 

I told them to pose by their favorite pictures.  Jake chose Mound of Butter.  :)

Nate had Charlie on his mind when he posed by this dog.  Shortly afterword, we got eyed by a security guard because on his way back to Mike, he made the cushion on a bench fall off with a loud thunk. Yikes! 

Jason chose this gourd.

Allie posed by The Dancer by Renoir. 

The Japanese Footbridge by Monet has always been a favorite.

We left the Gallery without incident and went back to the Air and Space Museum.  Jake hadn't seen all that he wanted to see and the others were begging to do a virtual reality ride. 

They loved it.  It wasn't very long, but they came out happy and excited.

It was a successful day.  We were really glad to have been able to see the pandas and have so much fun at the zoo.  I was glad to have seen some incredible works of art, and Jake was glad to go back to the Air and Space Museum.

Later that night, after Jason's shower, he came out naked and struck a pose.  He said "Look!  I'm a statue in that museum."

There was a whole lot of nakedness at that museum  :)