Vacation 2004: Day Five…
Did nothing but Smithsonian museums today — American History, Natural History, and Air and Space. Personally, I was less impressed than I thought I’d be. With more than 150 million artifacts in hand, the exhibits seemed less detailed and spacious than imagined, tailored to the tourists rather than concentrating on breadth and depth. Most of the fossils behind plastic cases were casts, not originals; there were more photographs of objects than objects themselves; and many of the exhibits were not interesting. Exceptions were a portion of the temporary pop culture showing of a Beatles photo exhibit within the American History Museum, but even that had no inspired memorabilia. The money collection of the Natural History Museum was probably the most complete of all.
Very disappointing that photography of the single-most interesting artifact, the actual flag that inspired the Star Spangled Banner, was prohibited. Not even without a flash.
Thanks to the increased security resulting from recent events, satisfactorily explaining the presence of a camouflage-painted container within my backpack discovered during manual bag checks has become almost second nature.
