More Mall life

Today was another day on the National Mall for the kids and I. We hit the National Gallery of Art again--that's my five-year-old son looking up at the massive doors after closing--where once again I stood in awe only inches from the brush strokes of legends (that's Rembrandt's Apostle Paul below).

We also stopped off at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History where we not only saw their crystal skull but also walked through their live butterfly exhibit, where several of the magnificent creatures landed on my son's head (my 10-year-old daughter thinks it's because of his bright red hat).

We also ventured through the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum . . .

. . . where we saw the actual hatch from the Apollo 11 capsule (below) along with other mind-bending artifacts.

We finished the day in Chinatown . . .

. . . at Tony Cheng's. Apparantly, this Chinese restaurant is a hot tourist spot--heh, while I was sitting outside waiting for the rest of our party to arrive, I saw no less than two tour buses pull up and empty out in front of (and into) this particular restaurant. The food was pretty good, but my favorite D.C. Chinatown restaurant remains a little Thai restaurant called Kanlaya on 6th Street.

Tomorrow, we'll spend one more day on the Mall. I'm grateful to our out-of-town friends, because we'd begun to take for granted our proximity to D.C. and all its offerings. It's an amazing place.

(Images: mine)