10 – Museum of American History and the Bacilica

It rained all day but we didn’t care. Our plans for the day mostly kept us inside where we covered two major attractions: The Smithsonian Museum of American History and the Bacilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

1. The Smithsonian Museum of American History is free admission like all the Smithsonians. We spent nearly 4 hours perusing the three floors exploring the many exhibitions that tell the tale of how the United States came to be and continued to develop into a world super power. All aspects of American life were presented from politics to religion to entertainment to industry and more. The quality of this museum is exemplary… everything done with perfection. We were very glad to have Ryan as our personal history guide.

2. The Bacilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is the largest Roman Catholic church in the USA and the second largest in North America (after one in Mexico). It is way beyond opulent and covers two full floors of space. Although the stained glass is certainly beautiful, it is the mosaics that dominate the decor. The vastness of the interior, however, makes it difficult to capture the beauty in photos. All you can do is look up with your mouth open and whisper “Oh, wow”. Unfortunately, the central dome is undergoing mosaic completion and won’t be ready for public viewing until December 2017.

Hungry after six hours of the above, we found a great restaurant called Busboys and Poets and enjoyed talking about everything we had seen today over our meal. Then home to relax and blog.

Here are the photo highlights of day 10 – Washington Museum of American History and the Bacilica