Rainy Days

My roommate Betsy crashed through our front door Sunday afternoon, coming back from a run. "It is straight up Noah's Ark out there!" She yelled from the foyer. She was so soaked she looked like a cartoon character- hair limp and dripping, sweatshirt hanging heavily off her shoulders, feet in pools of water gathering on the floor. She looked totally defeated, and it was hilarious!

Sunday was a rainy, dark day in DC but reminded me why I love living in this city. What is there to do on a Sunday afternoon in the pouring rain anywhere else? Here, the answer is easy. Rainy days are museum days! So that's exactly what I did. And of course, I headed straight for the Dinos at the Natural History museum, my favorite.

The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History NEVER, and I mean NEVER, gets old to a science nerd like me. Every time I go back, there's something new I haven't seen yet. That's probably because I'm normally too distracted by the dinosaur bones to make it anywhere past the first floor. Yesterday, however, I felt like exploring and went upstairs. I found perhaps the most underrated exhibit there- the insect zoo!

The insect zoo was DISGUSTING. It was full of the most enormous, gross bugs I'd ever seen. They looked like the bugs Timon and Pumba eat in the Lion King- or the bugs that popped out of the Oogie-Boogie Man in Nightmare Before Christmas. Brightly colored centepedes as long as a ruler creeped around their cages, and spiders bigger than your palm stared at you. The coolest/grossest of all, however, were the variations on stick bugs and leaf bugs. They were ENORMOUS, so big you could see them breathing! Their camouflage was incredible, and I was humbled by the beauty of their evolution. (I use the term beauty loosely, they were still gross.)

The museum had to kick us out. Personally I think 5:30 is way too early to close! I feel like I'm always getting kicked out of the Smithsonian, but it just means I'll have to go back soon- rain or not.

Peace and Love.