THORNBERRIES AND GREERS IN D.C.--Part II

Monday, May 12, 2008—Making the Best of a Soggy Situation

“...the Grounded Greers tend to plant ourselves in a spot or two and squeeze every drop out of it, while the Travelin' Thornberries roam from spot to spot, enjoying the essences of many places!”
Leda Greer

Naturally, the different values between the Greers and the Thornberries needed to be addressed. Jennifer and I typically like to sleep later on vacations than do the Greers, and as Leda’s quote above highlights, we have different levels of investment in the sights. Ergo, we had predetermined that we’d find our own way to the Metro station and meet up with the Greers in D.C. for lunch later.

The Gloppy Greers Do the Natural History Museum

Contrary to Jennifer’s and my popular belief, the First Noble Truth operates on everyone and not just us. All of us suffer relative to ourselves, as the entropic universe works passively to stymie even the best-laid plans. So it was that the Greers ended up leaving the hotel later than they hoped. Then they had to face a gray, wet day on their way to the Natural History Museum. Once they arrived, they ran headlong into the inevitable problem of cool places that have dinosaur bones…the plethora of kids. Yes, they told us later, they tolerated school buses up the butt, out the butt and everywhere in between the butt. Hundreds, thousands, millions of cackling teenagers brimmed from everywhere, with their bad hair, crappy music and cell phones rammed deeply into their ear canals.

But in the end, Leda and Robert weren’t there for the humans. It was all about the bones. Throughout their day, Robert made sure Leda got boned many times, as he pulled her eagerly through multiple branches of the museum to skeletal exhibits of Mesozoic, Pleistocene and modern animals. There were pieces dedicated to human cultural and technological achievements too.

Unfortunately, the Greers had had the fortune of seeing the Field Museum in Chicago two or three years ago, and many of the Smithsonian’s exhibits just didn’t hold a candle. Leda pointed out in her account to us later that many of the descriptions of various pieces were actually up to ten years out of date. Being avid fans of the Discovery channel and geeky scholars besides, both of the Greers have kept current on many new and revised theories in the world of paleontology and archeology. Apparently, this museum hadn’t.

But even still, our friends had a good time ducking and rolling around the squalling children in their quest to remain forever childlike themselves. They were exploring a Korean exhibit when they received a phone call from the Thornberries…

Leda captures the image of a hip Hippo.

A story about people eating really isn’t that interesting. The short version is that the Greers and the Thornberries ate in a really crowded place, shared our experiences and then split back up again to finish our respective museums. At closing time, we rendezvoused at Barnes and Noble and had coffee.


Click to Follow the Next Day with the Greers

Click to follow the Thornberries