Smithsonian Postal Museum

 We went to the Smithsonian Postal Museum last week. It was in a building that used to be solely a post office, but recently they turned part of it into a museum. 

Old postal train car

Mail transportation.

Owney was the USPS mascot in the early 1900s, and he would collect tags everywhere he went. They stuffed him after he died. 

cool diorama

A package sorting game.

I think this picture is so cool, and I wish that quote were true. Bringing all the conveniences of city life to the country hasn't kept people from wanting to live closer to or inside cities. 

Really fun getting to see what it's like to use those scanners

You had to line up the green light with the lines to scan correctly and it wasn't easy.

Stamp table; the museum put out a bunch of used stamps and let you pick out 6 to take home. 

Computer program to design your own stamp, this is Carson's. 

Tucker's

Savannah's

Room full of stamp archives

Old post boxes

These are some really old methods of stamping correspondence. 

National Museum of the American Indian

We went to the National Museum of the American Indian. I thought it would be about Native American history and culture in North America only, but there are exhibitions on the indigenous peoples in North, Central and South America. 

I couldn't take any good pictures of the exhibits, it was very dim lighting. This is the kid's hands-on area. 

They could try kayak balancing and building an igloo. 

building an igloo with pillow-blocks of ice

Our new place to live for 6 months

View of the backyard from upstairs.

Entryway (one of the cool archways)

Sunroom

This house was built in the early 1920s, and has a few renovated rooms. I love the old smell throughout the house, and the old light switches, the old windows and baseboards. There are a couple of rounded archways that you never see in houses anymore. 

Stairs into the basement

Little Dickens, Frank and Jane's cat.

We use the dining room for our school room. Rock Creek park is a short walk down the street, and there's a fun playground close by. We are closer to downtown, so we'll go to the museums more often. It is a beautiful and peaceful neighborhood with nice neighbors. We are already enjoying living here.