FROGS!

To celebrate Leap Day, Emma and I went in to the city with Mike via Metro and went to the National Geographic Museum just around the corner from his office on 15th Street between L and M. They have a special exhibit on frogs right now (running until May 11!) and were having extra-special froggy goodness today. Get it? Leap day, frogs…?

Admission was free and the place was surprisingly appropriate for different ages. I wasn’t sure Emma would enjoy herself very much, but it was one of those “have-to-get-out-of-the-house-or-die” days, so I took a chance. As you can tell by the photo, the giant photos of frogs were the highlight of her day - and certainly more fun than the ACTUAL frogs. Luckily there were enough pictures to keep her fascinated for a good hour.

The exhibit is in a small area, but they do a great job of packing in lots of information. The tanks with the live frogs are large and fun to look at. Most of the frogs were of the camouflaging sort, so there was no way Emma could even find them. The tiny dart poison frogs (which look plastic until they start to move) and the huge pollywogs got her attention though. There is one kiosk that creates a chorus of frog sounds when you press on the large buttons and in the middle of the floor are more pictures of frogs along with measurements to show you how far they can jump - and encouraging words to see if you can match it. Emma hasn’t quite perfected her leap yet, but had a lot of fun watching other kids try.

It can be tough to make a museum or exhibit appeal to the under-1 crowd and the over-5 crowd (and everyone in between) all at the same time, but National Geographic succeeded with this one I think. At one point I saw a mother holding her approximately 9 month old son up to the dart poison frogs, and as he laughed his head off, her just about 4 year old was talking to her about how many frogs there were in the tank. Pretty impressive.

After the museum we joined Mike for lunch at the National Education Association cafeteria just around the corner at 16th and M. The NEA cafeteria is open to all, has a great selection of affordable food, and a wonderful open seating area in an atrium where no one can hear, for example, a tired little girl complaining when she is finished with lunch. Just don’t get me started on the fact that the cafeteria is non-union …oh well, I guess nothing is perfect.

Happy Leap Day!