St. Patrick's Day Parade in DC

On our first ever trip to Washington DC, we chose to park at New Carrollton and take the metro in.  The drive took about an hour and the metro about half an hour.  

When we arrived, we found out the St. Patrick's Day Parade would be starting soon!  What a great surprise!  My favorites were the bagpipes, the Irish step dancers and the people who threw candy.  I remember candy throwing being outlawed in Salt Lake when I was growing up, wasn't it?      

After an hour, we got a little chilly and decided to head to the Museums.  First on the list: The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  We spent hours wandering the many rooms and watched Hubble 3D, which was really cool.  We even saw the first plane ever flown by the Wright brothers.  

We opted out of McDonalds (located right outside the museum) and went to a restaurant inside the American Indian Museum.  Delicious, but SUPER expensive.  We felt okay about it (this once) since all the museums are FREE.  I never knew that and was very impressed and happy to learn it.

We walked by the Capitol Building, snapped a few pictures and headed back indoors to warm up.  

We only had about 45 minutes before the Museum of Natural History closed, but chose a few things to try to see quickly.  We made it to the Hope Diamond and then became engrossed in the Gem Gallery and never made it out of that room until closing.  Next time, we'll plan to spend all day at this one museum.  Literally, there's that much to see.  

Another thing I learned: The Smithsonian Institution is actually the collection of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park, and Nine research facilities.  All free.  Well, they are federally funded, so I suppose we all pay for them with our taxes.  But still, I love "free" museums!

 This was a really cool piece of art: a metal tree.  Beautiful and water conserving!  I'm willing to bet it never blooms though.  Speaking of blooms, the Cherry Blossom Festival peak is predicted to be April 8th-12th.  We have a lot of nearby events on our calendar, including Fish Taco Fiesta, Spring Fest, Wine Fest, Beer Fest, Kite Fest, Farmers Markets, Bacon Fest, Best of DC and Gallery Walks.  The east coast is very "fest"-ey!  :)