There are so many things to do in D.C…and the best part is that all the museums are free!

I haven’t been to D.C. in years, so we used our free time to walk around some of the museums. Our first stop was The National Museum of Natural History. A list of the exhibitions can be found here; my favorite area is always the mammals section, where we found the little guy below.

We also walked through the gems and minerals exhibit where they have the Hope Diamond and some other beautiful (and humongous!) gems.

We didn’t spend a lot of time in the other rooms – the insect zoo is the worst if you’re like me and hate all the creepy crawlies.

We went over to The National Museum of American History, but we didn’t get to spend very much time there since it was close to closing time. We did manage to walk through The First Ladies exhibit, which was really interesting and educational! And if you don’t like education, you at least get to look at all their dresses…

On Saturday after the race we were determined not to waste time like we did after the Savannah half (after stuffing our face with chicken we napped the entire evening away). Although we were exhausted and our legs definitely didn’t want to walk anymore, we came back to The National Museum of American History.

Since we both love food, we had to go through FOOD: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000. It was super fascinating to see the rise of fast food and a reproduction of Julia Child’s home kitchen.

Another really great exhibit was The Price of Freedom: Americans at War. We basically had to run through this one because the museum was closing. Being an American literature professor who specializes in the American Revolution era, I really loved seeing some of the uniforms and weapons (George Washington’s sword!!!).

Although it was close to sundown, we of course had to walk over to the Washington Monument.

You can tell from our faces above that we were trying to stay positive despite the whipping wind and freezing cold!

What are your favorite museums and exhibits to see? If you live in D.C., do you still visit the museums?