Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History I Trail Cooking

In 2003, we took our oldest to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., when Ford had just turned 6 years old. I talked him into coming with his brothers to revisit the museum this week.

We took the MARC train in from West Virginia to Union Station, then started walking.

Wear your best hiking shoes with good socks. Stay hydrated, and when you come across shady rest areas, take a moment to kick back and enjoy the views.

We had a couple of places I wanted to stop by.

The Senate Fountain was one of them.

How can one not love their country on a day like this? D.C. in the central government area is a walker’s dream.

The memorial for William Howard Taft’s son, Robert. Taft is a family joke, so we were entertaining ourselves quite nicely.

It’s currently being renovated. That park, though, is so calming to be in it, and the views of the Capitol from the side are great.

One was the reflecting pool under the Capitol. So many baby ducks were in the water. They have built a ramp for the babies, so once they have hatched, they can walk right up the little stairs and jump in. Far too cute, I tell you.

Walking along the National Mall, taking in all the sights. The USDA building was one, as was the Smithsonian Castle, which is currently being renovated.

I told the boys to look for the Washington Monument, then you know you are on the right path to the museum, which is on Constitution Avenue, along the National Mall. If you put the Capitol to your back, well, there it is!

The day was perfect – 75, a breeze, and blue skies.

As we walked along the sidewalk, we passed more places we put on our “return to see” list.

The main goal was to visit the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History:

We got out of school last week in WV. We went a week late this year, due to the very long and cold winter we had last year, so this Monday was our first official day of school being out.

Ford and I joked that we wanted to take a photo of him as a little kid, now as an adult. However, the museum underwent a major renovation about a decade ago. The dinosaur section looks nothing like it did then. And I asked at the help desk, and the employees didn’t recognize the dinosaur he was in front of. Oh well! Don’t take 21 years to redo photos with your kids 😉 The displays are all now behind clear protection, and much to my dismay, so much is visual now, to entrance the eyes and the younger children, who have grown up consistently with screens in front of them. But you can enjoy seeing our oldest at six going “RAWR!”!

But I wasn’t thinking about how this would be non-stop school tours on the first days of June. Oops.

It was packed and LOUD in the museum. I had been there the last time at the end of November, when it was chill.

There are no tickets (as it always has been, which is free to enter). Some of their museums have timed entry tickets to keep the crowds chill. I hate to say it, but this one desperately needs it. There were roving groups of loud children running and jumping. I know I sound judgy as all get out, but I have been a field trip volunteer many times, and I never allowed behavior like that. Walker and Alistaire, I suppose, show their home-schooled background, and enjoy visiting museums to learn. This was the museum I had promised to take them to for years, when we lived in Washington State.

You do go through security here, so be prepared. The security is full of people who were too sour to make TSA. (Yes, I get that is rude – but my last flight I had TSA agents running over to see my cat, and pet him. I have found in certain airports that the TSA agents are actually smiling these days!)

And wow, it was so underwhelming as an experience. Too many people, too loud (with no sound dampening), and too many lights. I felt disappointed because I had held this up as “the big museum,” and I thought I was not delivering.

My oldest is on the spectrum, so I always watch for when he is about to collapse inside his mind, and I saw it coming. So, after seeing the main floor, we headed down a level to get lunch.I had hoped at least the lower level cafe would be quieter. No, it was not. It was hot, and so very loud. Poorly laid out as well.

Which is where I will pick a bone and sound whiny:

Do not eat at this museum.

The Smithsonian might be free, but they get you on the food. $4.75 for a 20-ounce pop. $5.90 for a tiny cup of plain iced tea.

This tiny plate of food weighed in at .55 of a pound, so just over 8 ounces, and the cost was $10.75. It was good food, I will give that (it was a very soft brisket, potato wedges, and cauliflower casserole).

The boys all had chicken tenders and fries. The chicken was overcooked at $12.95 a basket.

What upset me wasn’t the food, but that many items lacked pricing, making it a guessing game. A slice of key lime pie? No idea. Oh, $8? A tiny bag of chips? $3.50. Not even my food could I find a price on the board.
Additionally, prices are not available online. The National Art Gallery museum provides its cafe prices online for complete transparency. The cafe workers, in general, were not very friendly, making it difficult to determine the prices.

When you drop $90.75 on lunch, you’d like it to taste good and fill you up.

So buyer beware. Had I known this, I would have taken the boys down the street to the cafe in the Outdoor Sculpture Garden. And we could have eaten outside, in the shade, in quiet.

The takeaway on the museum:

This is not a good place to take anyone who is on the Autistic Spectrum. It will exhaust them. I think that if there had not been all the schools there, it would have been better. You couldn’t stand long in a place and look, because the kids would run into you. Leaving was worse – there were multiple sidewalk vendors screaming and hounding people to buy their crap. It was the only place I saw that had this issue on our nearly 9-mile walk.

But, I feel that the day was so positive – everywhere else was fantastic to visit and walk by. And if you are taking a train home, the Shake Shack in Union Station is where to cool down with a shake. That was affordable and satisfying, with all the cold water you could want – complimentary. The truth is, we had a good day, but what was the most fun? Sitting in the shade, watching the baby ducks float by on the pool. And talking about the various memorials along the pool. We put in nearly 9 miles of walking and saw quite a bit. An educational day of walking is how I would put it.

~Sarah