(This blog post from Smithsonian Zoological Garden)
6:20 AM : Up and ready to leave Blacksburg.
7:00 AM : Reached Graduate Life Center. Met Lindsay and Krishna, they will be taking us to DC. We are joined byTatania and Vuko from Macedonia, Studying Agro Economics, Sadia from Pakistan, studying Architecture and the usual gang of Rahul, Hiren, Sagar and Jigar. DC is four and half hours journey from Blacksburg. Journey was fun, learnt Napoleon(card game) and mastered it.
Noon : Reached Western Virginia, met Saurabh and Vasanth, these are the guys we will be staying with. Kept our luggage at there place and bought a full day pass for Washington Metro. We started from West Falls Church to Smithsonian. On the way, we learnt about the metro, how Blue, Red, Orange tacks work, where do that meet. All set to launch ourselves into the magic world of Museums.
Smithsonian Station, DC
1:30 PM : Reached Smithsonian, now everyone else would be heading there own way. Main purpose of the trip was to watch Football game as Bailey’s but we would be skipping that to check out few museums. Got information from the Smithsonian Information Center, planned a route that we should be following to cover all the places and started.
Smithsonian Information Center
2:00 PM : Checked out places around and decided to go to Air and Space Museum.
2:15 PM : Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, one of the best museums I have visited in my life. This is one place where one must visit. This museum had amount of information about air and space science that I have read till today. If one spends a full day (one might take more time) here then he will have all generic information about airplanes, space ships, shuttles, fighter planes and lot more. This museum is just not for science it tells you about history, future and many aspects that we have not thought of. Real size models, simulators, planetarium and IMAX movies make the environment so interactive that a person remotely related to science will be able to appreciate science. Lets say, we have read many times about a semiconductor chip and how One Lakh (Hundred Thousand) transistors can be accommodated in one small chip, but once you see a heap of a lakh transistors and a chip compared in size and in real, you will see what we have achieved. At one point, I had tears in my eyes thinking about what human kind has achieved.
There was the propeller from the first plane that Wright brothers flew, a real cockpit, console of aircraft carrier, Gyroscope, Oxygen Filter, E Aldrin’s dress, Model of Skylab (Which we can get in and see) and many pieces of equipments that are used in air and space travel. We do not understand the magnitude of effort that has gone behind the development, but after visiting this museum one realizes science behind a lot of things.
To sum for me this experience was like a kid left in Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.
Mars Rover’s Model @ Air and Space Museum, DC
Full set of photos from Air and Space Museum
3:50 PM : Visited US Capitol Building. Only guided tours are allowed to get in, so we clicked few photos from outside.
4:00 PM : Smithsonian Museum of Natural History was our next destination. We did not expect much from the museum, but Saurav insisted that we visit the place. Then he told about ‘Hope Diamond’ and that changed out mind. Entrance to museum was not so great, there were a set of stuffed birds and a souvenir shop, but scene changed at first floor. There was a giant Asian Elephant at display in central hall, it was spectacular. There were a lot of corridors from that hall, leading to different things. We started with the fossils, they was pretty impressive. Then came the amazing life size skeletons of Dinosaurs. There were all kind of dinosaurs at display, took a lot of photos. We moved to next hall and first thing we saw was Hope Diamond, it was beautiful. I am not sure I have ever seen a diamond before (I really don’t care) so I can safely say, Hope Diamond was the first diamond I ever saw. Then there were a series of other kind of diamonds and ornaments. Lots of necklaces, crowns and rings from all over the world were on display.
Dinosaurs Model @ Natural History Museum
Full set of photos from Natural History museum
We visited butterfly park too, but it was closed for maintenance. Then there were set of wildlife models, they looked almost real. We wanted to see more stuff but it was 5:30 and museum closed.
Lot to write about Washington Memorial, White House and National Zoological Park, but times up at Zoo. Continuing post will be from Blacksburg.
(Part II to follow)
