We had the best time in Washington, D.C!  All of the monuments and the Smithsonian Museums are free which consist of approximately 17 different buildings.  We will definitely go back as a person really needs weeks to just make it through all of it.  Here is an example of "original" early airplanes made of wood in the Air and Space Museum.  Bob loved this museum as it had all of the space suits, space capsules, space stations, military aircraft, engines, and on and on.  It was very interesting.     

I enjoyed the Natural History museum.  Jurassic Park up front!

I really enjoyed the National Gem Collection.  They have some of the largest gems in the world on display.  It is hard to imagine the beauty and size of the these gems.  The above brooch on the far right is the Logan Sapphire which is 423 carats and is the world's largest-known faceted blue sapphire.    

In the American History Museum, Bob found an old car like the one he and his brother rebuilt as young men.  I had to get a picture of the "old man" with the "old car".

Of course, we had to go to the National Zoo to see the Pandas.  They were great!!

This is actually a squirrel.  He was beautiful!

You can tell it is spring in D.C.  All of the babies were being born.  It's very hard to see, but this momma gorilla has her baby clinging to the front of her.  

They had lions and tigers and bears!

The orangutan is an extremely smart being.  This one was given a frozen treat, wrapped in a huge towel.  It unwrapped the towel and hit the frozen ball onto the bottom of the tower to form the smaller edible pieces.  The zookeepers let the orangutans out of one building and they are free to climb huge towers and cables clear across to the other side of the park.  There they can decide if they want to spend the night at that location or cross back over to the original location.  After a designated time, the zookeepers lock them into whatever building they are at for the night.  

This is a pygmy hippopotamus.   Very small compared to its bigger brother. 

This is a regular hippopotamus which sleeps under water by holding its breath for approximately 6 minutes at one time.  Here it is coming up for air by just lifting its nostrils only out of the water for a quick breath and then back under it goes.

This is a cuttlefish which is related to the squid family.  When watching it, it appears to be floating on wings in the water which is very hard to see in a still photograph.  It was fascinating!

This is one of the largest lobsters I have ever seen in my entire life!  It was hard to see the actual size in a still photo, so these children volunteered to stand in front of it so you could see how large it actually is.  The little girl is about 9 years old and the little boy was about 7.  The lobster is just about as big as they are.  I wonder what a restaurant would charge for that one for dinner.

I couldn't resist.  This was a really cool looking crab that was eating some fruit.

The wind was blowing in 45-50 mile per hour gusts when we arrived.  It was suggested to us that a boat trip to Ft Sumpter would be a great educational experience, but with waves like that blowing out there, you couldn't pay me to get onto a boat.  This was the view from our campsite at the Short Stay Naval Recreation Facility in Moncks Corner, SC.