The National Museum of the American Indian

I guess it's alright to admit this publicly: I have lived in DC for over four years, but I have still not been to all of the Smithsonian Museums.

Pretty terrible, huh?

I do have conversations occasionally with well meaning folks who assume that because I live here, I spend all of my free time exploring the corners of each and every free museum in the city.  While that is a lovely theory, I do have laundry to do, therefore I sometimes actually go home after work, run to the grocery store and perform a mundane activity like cooking or cleaning.

All that to say...lately I have decided that I need to push myself to see more of the city, even if I do feel like taking a nap instead.  With that mindset, Kern and I headed over to the National Museum of the American Indian because neither one of us had ever been there.

We started our adventure with a delicious (but very overpriced) meal in the museum cafe because we had heard that the Indian cuisine was amazing.  It was a neat experience--they have different types of food from various regions (South America, Northern Woodlands, Meso American, etc).

Once we were full, it was time to explore.  The Museum is four levels, but it is very doable for an afternoon.

Kern posing with a beaver drawing:

Beautiful gold artifacts

We read a fascinating history on guns and how they were introduced by the Europeans

I love these beautiful beaded Bibles

This amazing tipi was on display - I loved looking at the individual drawings across the fabric

This beautiful head piece was made more a horse

Bombardiers are used by commercial fisherman to travel across frozen lakes and drill through the ice to fish