#12. Go to 3 New Museums

Well here is a little change up for you all! A new bucket list item I have not done yet!!!! I didn't have any specific museums picked that I particularly wanted to see, I mostly just wanted an excuse to expose myself to new and interesting information. What better way than a museum right??

So my first museum trip was on Saturday and it was to the American Indian Museum in Washington, DC. The whole day was actually pretty amazing, so I think I might just highlight all of it in this blog so bare with me...

So this day was not only important for my list, but for my sanity. Due to my burn (which is healing up fine thank you) I have pretty much been cooped up in my apartment, mainly my bed, for days on end. No working out, no shopping, not really able to walk for long periods of time, just all around miserable. So when I started having issues getting ready (putting on jeans isn't all that easy) I had a breakdown. I just started crying, and basically feeling sorry for myself. Hey, it happens, and I admit it. All the frustration from the past 3 weeks just boiled over and I couldn't help it. I called Jake, who was coming with me, and told him that I didn't think I could do it, and that my burn hurt too bad, and just basically sobbed. He calmed me down, reassured me everything would be fine, and to just relax for a bit until I was in less pain. So I did, and my burn decided it magically wasn't going to hurt anymore and I was able to get on my jeans, skinny jeans at that! 

Needless to say, the day was all uphill from there. First we stopped at Taylor Gourmet in DC for lunch. It is a hoagie place created by two friends who wanted to open up the best sandwich shop in DC, and they did. All sandwiches are served on "old world Italian loafs" with Italian cured meats and in house roasted turkey. I had the "Spruce Street", with in house roasted turkey, prosciutto, roasted red peppers, and sharp provolone. Uggggggh so delicious. I was in love with the bread. Jake got the "Pattison Avenue", which was roasted pork, broccoli rabe and sharp provolone cheese, which was devoured in about 5 min. The icing on top, which did not consist of any dessert what so ever, was the Love Park Salad with arugula, pastina, cherry tomatoes, pesto and fresh mozzarella. Game over.

So then came the main event. The National Museum of the American Indian is the 16th Smithsonian museum and contains 800,000 artifacts and 300,000 images. It holds exhibits on Native American groups from the entire Western Hemisphere and Hawaii. The building itself is stunning and contemporary. There are no corners in the entire building because of the negative connotation they carry with Native Americans.  The landscape around the outside it is planted with all native plants, that are designed to reflect the changing seasons. In the summer, there is a beautiful wetland out front. 

The inside of the building is very spacious, almost too spacious. Although there were amazing artifacts in the museum, we heard a tour guide explaining that what they had represented in the museum was only 1% of the entire collection. They definitely had the room to expand it quite a bit, and I wish they would! As for the exhibits themselves, they were very engaging and interesting. My favorite would have to be the Vantage Point: The Contemporary Native Art Collection. This exhibit contained paintings, photographs and drawings from 25 artists depicting Native American culture of yesterday and today. These pieces were so visually stunning that I couldn't help but take a million pictures of them.

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Another favorite was the small exhibit on the local Native Americans of the Chesapeake. It was so interested to read about these groups, but when I mean the exhibit was small, it consisted of 4 two sided pillars that were mostly words. Boo! I need more than that!!!

Overall, the museum was very interesting, and it artifacts were engaging, but like I said before I wish there had been more. I also would have liked the layout of the museum to be different. Many of the artifacts were grouped by theme like "theology" or "life style" but what I would have liked was to see the different tribes grouped by region. I didn't really learn where all the different groups were from. Stemming from the Chesapeake region exhibit, I would have liked to see the northeast, southwest, northwest..etc. That way I could have compared their lifestyles to one another based on their geography.

Here are some other favorite photos from the museum: