Their main writing contest this week is about experiencing winter in national and state parks. I wish the Olympic bobsled run at Lake Placid was in a park, but alas, it is not. So I looked instead at their other contest, which asks you to fill in the blanks on the places that their editors wish they had pieces on. It suggests local spots, based on your profile. Lucky me, I'm a hometown tourist.
What's that? You don't know what a hometown tourist is? Well, my dear reader, have you ever had the experience of hosting a relative or friend, who asks whether Alcatraz/Statue of Liberty/Washington Monument/Freedom Trail/Coca-Cola museum/Grassy Knoll/Santa Monica Pier/Sears Tower is really worth it? Where you're unable to answer because, despite having lived in the city your entire life, you've never actually been? As a hometown tourist, you are less likely to find yourself in this position, because you spend time mingling with the tourists and seeing all the amazing things the city has to offer.
I used to live in Oxnard, California - pretty enough but kind of devoid of local culture. So when I moved to D.C., I promised myself that I would be a hometown tourist and take advantage of the outstanding museums, theater, and music opportunities in the District. I told myself that once a week (probably, but not always, on the weekend) I'd do something "cultural." Because of that, I found myself exploring the Smithsonian, playing kickball in the shadow of the Washington Monument, picnicking during the Cherry Blossom Festival, watching UConn basketball play in the NCAA tournament, getting season tickets to the Washington National Opera (and learning that my mother was in the Old Saybrook High School Opera Club), doing arabesques with my girlfriends outside the Nutcracker, touring most of the monuments, attending concerts as diverse as Mozart at the Austrian Embassy and Christmas by the Alexandria Singers, and taking advantage of an unexpected day off of work to watch the House of Representatives in session.
And, when Trazzler said they were interested in the National Museum of Natural History, I pulled out my photos (in iPhoto - because I am in no way good enough to edit photos, post on facebook, blog, AND put them into a real photo album) and relived my trips there.
Note: 3D glasses make me dizzy, and it was heavy on the special effects (such as a camel trekking across a parchment map) that didn't quite live up to their potential (think the Marauder's Map in Harry Potter), but overall I liked this film that focused on Saudi Arabia. It reminded my of my brief stop in Bahrain and my years of Arabic study at Cornell, and it featured a lot about the Hajj.
Recommended pairings:
Islam: A Short History, for a quick background on the history of the religion and culture that dominates Saudi Arabia.
The Qur'an, for the source text.
The Desert and the Sown: The Syrian Adventures of the Female Lawrence of Arabia, which I haven't read yet, but which provides a personal account of the development of the Middle East by the West.
Note: Phoenix is a replica of a real North Atlantic right whale that the museum tracks, is plankton-eating, has barnacles living on her skin, is not quite as big as New York's American Museum of Natural History's blue whale, and is an all-around cool chick.
Recommended pairings:
"True to Form," an article from the Smithsonian magazine.
Moby Dick, the classic whale story. (Also, the New Bedford Whaling Museum does an annual, round-the-clock reading of the story. My 82-year-old grandpa had the 2:40 am slot this year.)
Note: Doesn't this case remind you of something much less modern than a state-of-the-art museum display? It's as if you're in a 1940's glass-bottomed boat, shrieking at the sight of a sea monster...and no one will believe you, because she's sinking back down into the darkness and will fade from view before you can persuade anyone to look.
Recommended pairings:
http://ocean.si.edu/, the Smithsonian's online companion to everything that doesn't fit onto the Ocean Hall's signs.
"Giant Squid has world's largest eye," an AP video report showing a squid in context.
Not recommended:
This hilarious site that uses the best of early 90s web design. On a NASA domain name.
Note: It's only gross to look at bones when they have decomposing flesh attached, and since Miss Lucy here is about 3.2 million years old, she just feels like a really short, barrel-chested, apelike skeleton that you'd find in a science classroom or at a Halloween party.
Recommended pairings:
Lucy: the Beginnings of Humankind, also newly on my to-read list.
The Origin of Species, for its insights into how species evolve, say, from Lucy to homo sapiens sapiens.
Note: I'm not sure whether it's that the museum has better taxidermists than, say, McGuire's of Pensacola, Florida, or that people at the museum clean and groom their mounted animals whereas the people at the bar use their grubby, sticky, beer hands to "kiss the moose" ... nonetheless, these animals look like they could pounce at any second. The kids love it.Recommended pairings:
The Jungle Book, featuring Mowgli, a human who grew up among the animals.
Tarzan of the Apes, featuring Tarzan, who did the same.
An Historical Account of the Discovery and Education of a Savage Man, or of the First Developments, Physical and Moral, of the Young Savage, Caught in the Woods near Aveyron, in the Year 1798, featuring Victor, who may or may not have done the same.
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, because the lion here is how I picture Aslan looking noble.
The Life of Pi, because the tiger here is how I picture Richard Parker pouncing on threats to Pi's lifeboat.
Like dinosaurs, ancient walkers of the Earth.
Note: This hall is always crowded, and the chatter echoes. For slightly more peaceful dinosaur experiences, go to Connecticut's Peabody Museum and Dinosaur State Park.
Recommended pairings:
Anything recommended by your local children's librarian.
Note: This was a temporary exhibit co-sponsored by the Botanic Garden. It had, literally, hundreds of varieties of orchids. They were all colors, all petal shapes, all kinds of exotic. It was the first time I understood why my Aunt Fran would travel for flower shows - the flowers were gorgeous. But they also put these flowers into the setting of an eastern philosopher's room, surrounding a "scholar's stone." This stone is meant to have an interesting shape, one that can be endlessly pondered.Recommended pairings:
The Sayings of Confucius
The Art of Happiness, by the Dalai Lama
Note: I'm obsessed with seagulls, and the big one in the middle is the gull in this picture. But really, I just see these skeletons dancing around with the Corpse Bride, in an unreleased beach scene.
Recommended pairing:
Jonathan Livingston Seagull, for the name alone.
Note: The bones in this exhibit come from 17th century Chesapeake settlements. The exhibit points out the features that distinguish sex and race, and also shows things like the holes worn in teeth by pipes (big holes, indicating not much of anything) and pins (smaller grooves, indicating a probable tailor/seamstress profession). Cool!
Recommended pairings:
The Bone Lady: Life as a Forensic Anthropologist, despite the fact that it feels like it's capitalizing on the Bones phenomenon.
Anything by Kathy Reichs, who is the initiator of said Bones phenomenon. Fun fact: first place she held bones was at this museum!
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