Kids' Choice Adventure

We were scheduled to go to the American History Museum, but Oob really really wanted to go to Natural History.  No sooner had he suggested it, than Zorg mentioned he really wanted to go to National Gallery.

Why not both?  The two museums are a block apart!

It turned out what Oob really wanted was to see the butterfly exhibit.



That turned out to be fun for everyone!

Beautiful and sketch worthy...

We also spent time in the insect zoo with a very enthusiastic docent who wanted us  handle lots of bugs!

 Then, on the way out, a new narwhal exhibit caught my eye.

Narwhals are one of those strange animals that I didn't know too much about.

Now I know that they are even stranger than I thought!

Did you ever notice that their tusk isn't in the middle?

 Then it was on to National Gallery.

Coincidentally, I had been there the previous weekend with Mxyl (who now takes me to museums!😍).

For one thing, this fountain had no plants 3 days ago!





For another, there wasn't a long line to get into the (swoon worthy) Vermeer exhibit.  It was an exhibit of Vermeer and similar painters of his time, so the paintings were in groups by theme.

It was fascinating to see how several different artists from the same time and place painted say, a woman reading a letter.  I walked away with a better grasp of what make Vermeer so ... sublime?

To me there is a purity and peace in his paintings that makes them transcendent.  The more I look at his paintings, the more I feel drawn in to them in an almost religious way: it's an experience of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.

The other paintings were lovely, too, but they weren't Vermeers.  In some ways not even all Vermeers are like that for me, but the best of them really are.

And we visited a few more favorites and all decided we would like to come again.

But this week, Choclo told me he wanted to go see the "ancient stuff", which means The Walters and their collection of Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman antiquities.

I love living where I do and being able to take my kids to see so much amazing stuff!

Even better is the kids figuring out for themselves what they want to go see more of!