Smithsonian Sunday: Prehistoric Dinosaur King Headed to DC

DC's Smithsonian museums (there are 17 of them here in the city) are among America's most treasured and visited places. But the Smithsonian also publishes a series of some of the most interesting, fact-filled blogs appearing anywhere on the internet. Each Sunday, The Prices Do DC re-posts an entry that initially appeared in one of those highly-readable blogs. Hope you enjoy and maybe we'll see you soon at the Smithsonian.

This April, Smithsonian's Natural History Museum will welcome 7-ton, 38-foot long new resident—a 66 million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex fossil, which will serve as the centerpiece for the museum's new 31,000-square-foot national fossil hall, slated to open in 2019.

In preparation for the skeleton's arrival, the museum unveiled “Tyrannosaurus rex: Say Hello to the Nation’s T. rex!” on January 16, a display that features a cast of the incoming dinosaur's skull. The display will remain visible in the museum's Constitution Avenue lobby until the skeleton's arrival on April 15. 

On April 28, the current fossil hall will close to the public, in order for renovations to begin—but, thanks to a variety of exhibits which the museum has planned, the public will still be able to view various dinosaurs and fossils even during the renovations.

To continue reading this post, click here

Helping The Grandkids Do DC

DC is a great city for hosting your grandkids. So much to do and so much of it for free. Of course, there is the National Zoo. But on the most recent visit from our 6-year-old granddaughter Audrey and our our 4-year-old grandson Owen, we headed for the National Mall. Here is what we did.

Kids love riding trains and subways. So. of course, we traveled by Metro.

Our 1st stop was the Smithsonian Castle. Both our grandkids love Legos, so the Lego model of the castle was a big hit. Then, we used one of the scale models of the National Mall area to talk about where we were going and what we were going to do and see. We usually pick one place and then let them choose one place on the mall per day.

Their choice was the National Museum of Natural History. Our 1st stop there was the new Q?rious science education center . Then it was on to the natural fossil hall for a last look at the dinosaurs displayed the way they are now. The hall will close on April 28 and won't reopen until 2019. Owen also got to preview the T-Rex coming to the museum in April.

Our choice for the kids was the National Museum of American History where we took in a special show from a one-eyed puppet master that was part of the ongoing Puppetry in America exhibition, which is on view until April 13.  Then is was upstairs for a look at Miss Piggy in the American Stories exhibit, Audrey loves Miss Piggy and we had just seen the new Muppet movie the night before.

And no matter how many times we visit the history museum, Audrey wants to see Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz.

The National Mall also has whole series of walls that are just perfect for climbing. Here Audrey and Owen wave goodbye to the mall until their next trip to DC.