Oops - Museum of Natural History, Part 2

I woke up this morning and realized that I had forgotten to talk about our favorite half of the Museum of Natural History.

 

After the girls had had their fill of the mammal room and all the animals there, we decided we'd just leave the museum, but when we walked out into the main atrium, A saw the sign for the Hope Diamond - something we had seen advertised outside before we came in and that she really wanted to see. The Hope Diamond is a blue 45.52 carat diamond, set on a necklace with diamonds all around it. It's pretty amazing to see (but nearly impossible to photograph because it sparkles so intensely).

Held by a series of royal dignitaries since the 1600's, its current value is estimated at $200-250 million. It is very beautiful in person although this is the best picture I could get of it.

I thought about stealing a photo off the internet, but all of the pictures I found out there really don't look any closer to how this beautiful necklace looks in person, and at least this one's shiny :).

 

It was housed in an exhibit on gems and minerals that A completely loved. Their collection of minerals, gemstones and rocks included hundreds specimens all labeled and categorized. She had so much fun looking at them all and Jessey and I amused ourselves noticing how many of the minerals were named after the person who found them, and looking for radioactive and dangerous items like arsenic. We did find it particularly funny that the thick plate window in front of the radioactive rocks had a huge crack in it.

 

Next we went across the hall to the mummy and bones exhibit. Now it was C's turn to be fascinated. A and K weren't too keen on looking at the bones and mummies, so they headed over to the insect exhibit while Jessey, C and I went to look at the bones. We had seen mummies before, but C was particularly fascinated by the mummified children in the exhibit. She kept asking me who I thought they were or how I thought they died.

 

The bone exhibit was awesome. They showed atrophied bones of someone who was bedridden, as well as the extra-thick armbones of a parapalegic's arms due to wheel chair use. They had broken bones and healed broken bones, and just about every prosthetic and bionic body part available to humans. They showed how bones help them figure out how old a person was and how the bones change over time as we age. It was probably one of the coolest biology exhibits I've seen in a while.

 

I'm really glad we didn't leave the museum after our experience with the first floor - the second floor was totally worth it!

 

Ok, well I think that's it for Day 1 in DC. I just couldn't go on without posting that (and I promised A that I would talk about the Hope Diamond on the blog).