Art, History, Bricks and Brotherly Love

Beyond learning French, my goal while here is to play tourist as much as I can. Every weekend, I hope to go to a museum, see a site or something. Last weekend, I went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. I’d swung by before, but it was swamped and I kind of sped through one floor.

This time, I arrived shortly after it opened and headed to the top floor, assuming I’d work my way down. Well, it’s just not possible to see it all in a couple hours, which is my threshold for crowds. I made it mostly comfortably until noon and, shortly thereafter, hit that “get outta Dodge right now” moment and quickly exited. At that point, I had almost – like 95 percent – finished the top floor. There is just so, so much to see.

Honestly, the Smithsonians are amazing places, and when you read about their research, outposts, etc., it becomes more and more amazing. Everyone should come to D.C. and see as many as possible. I would love to do a tour of one of their storage units, or whatever they call them, where the bulk of the stuff not on display at this museum or that museum is stored. It’s staggering.

My guess is the Natural History Museum is the kids’ favorite because of the giant elephant right inside the foyer and all of the skeletons. There were just so many school buses and kids, though not until about noon or so. I’ll head out there again to do another floor, but it will be at 10 a.m. sharp and I’ll maybe last until 1 p.m.

I had no idea the Hope Diamond was in the Smithsonian. How cool is that?

There are so many museums and cool things here that I hope I can make a dent in the list, but there are also things a short drive – or bus ride – away. Like Philadelphia, which is where I went last weekend. It’s under four hours by bus, and cost less than $45. The train is slightly more expensive, but the bus had more time options, so I went with that.

It was fantastic! I’ve been to Philly once before, but it was probably under the age of 15 and the only memories I have of visiting are two photos I (or maybe someone else) took. One’s Independence Hall and one is of the Liberty Bell. That was, I’m sure, in the days where you had a camera with a 24-exposure roll. This time around, I probably took 24 photos of the Liberty Bell itself.

I had short list of stuff to visit and hit all but one of those, but had no regrets. I did not eat a cheesesteak, but that was a result of caving on a milkshake around noon, which followed an amazing breakfast at some random place I walked past on the way to the Rocky statue. I just couldn’t eat anything else and did not want to stuff myself before getting on a bus – not a good idea. Instead, I bought some TastyCakes, which are also a taste of Philly.

Outside of “eat a cheesesteak,” my entire list was Rocky statue, Independence Hall, Liberty Bell and an art show. I also visited the Betsy Ross House, Elfreth Alley (oldest residential alley), the Reading Street market (where I got the milkshake) and the cemetery where Ben Franklin was buried. My hotel was right downtown and completely overrun with people at an educational convention. I mean, it was packed with people. I was a bit bummed that the lounge was closed on weekends because I’d counted on the free snacks but ah well.

All the liberty stuff was super cool, but oh man, The Art of the Brick at the Franklin Institute. Phenomenal. I’d searched a couple weeks ago what was going on in the city for the weekend and that’s what I came up with – an art exhibit comprised entirely of pieces made from Lego bricks.

Here’s the description, from https://theartofthebrickexpo.com/en/.

“The Art of the Brick immerses the visitor in the world of Nathan Sawaya: a cheerful and colorful world. The artist used more than a million bricks for this exhibition, creating over 70 works of art that can make adults and children smile and reflect. The collection includes a great variety of sculptures alongside re-imagined versions of some of the world’s most famous art masterpieces, such as Michelangelo’s David, Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.”

Since I couldn’t get there before 5 p.m., I didn’t go to the museum itself and only did the exhibit, which had evening hours as well. Honestly, it was the best $20 I’ve spent in some time. I cannot imagine how much time and Lego bricks were involved, but the Easter Island sculpture itself was made from over 75k pieces.

The vision Sawaya (a former attorney) had with Lego bricks is incredible. His exhibit encompassed several themed rooms, opening with replicas of famous works of art such as American Gothic and Starry Starry Night. Next, there were scaled-down versions of sculptures that included David, Venus de Milo, the Easter Island thing and a lot of other ones that looked vaguely familiar from humanities class. Another room featured animals, some of them very close to life size (tiger and cheetah), but others scaled down but still gigantic (whales and polar bears). There’s also a room with one installation: a 20-foot-long dinosaur skeleton that has over 80k pieces.

Each room wowed and I literally took pictures of every single work of art, sometimes more than one. I love American history, but that exhibit was the absolute highlight of the trip.